WhatsApp has stopped working on the phones running the Nokia S40 operating system. To recall, WhatsApp announced the end of support for a slew of mobile devices a few years ago, and this includes devices that run on BlackBerry 10, BlackBerry OS, Nokia Symbian S60, Windows Phone 8.0, Nokia S40, Android versions 2.3.7 and older, Apple iOS 7 and older. WhatsApp no longer invests in developing its service for these platforms, and it will stop working on all of them by 2020. It already doesn’t work with devices that run on Nokia Symbian S60, BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10, and Windows Phone 8.0 OS. After December 31, 2018, WhatsApp stopped working for devices that run on Nokia S40. If you currently own a Nokia S40 phone, you will have to switch to another phone to keep using the service. Nokia series 40 used to be one of the most popular smart feature phone operating systems a few years back, but after the acquisition by Microsoft, the operating system was put to an end.
The Nokia S40 OS was seen in the company’s mid-tier devices like Nokia Asha 201, Nokia Asha 205, Nokia Asha 210, Nokia Asha 230, Nokia Asha 500, Nokia Asha 501, Nokia Asha 502, Nokia Asha 503, Nokia 206, Nokia 208, Nokia 301, Nokia 515.
WhatsApp says that devices that run on Nokia S40 won’t be able to use WhatsApp after December 31. Support was originally expected to end in June this year, but WhatsApp extended it till December, bringing some relief to the few Nokia S40 users.
We presume the number of people affected by this end of support will be very few, as the Nokia S40 OS is extremely old – first unveiled in 1999, updated in 2005., and last used on Nokia 515 in 2013. The app will stop working on phones running Android 2.3.7 and older (Gingerbread) and iPhone 3GS/ iOS 6 from February 1, 2020.
We discussed what WhatsApp absolutely needs to do in 2019, on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.
