WhatsApp Drops BlackBerry Support

Whatsapp.jpgIn a story that could be seen as a microcosm of the evolving state of mobile, Facebook-owned over-the-top messaging service WhatsApp has announced that it will be ceasing support for a number of smaller mobile operating systems over the next year, including all versions of BlackBerry.

Back when WhatsApp first launched in 2009, BlackBerry was a world-leading mobile manufacturer. Today, BlackBerry lays claim to barely one per cent of the global market, while WhatsApp has just passed 1bn monthly active users.

Along with BlackBerry, WhatsApp is ending support for the Nokia S40 and Symbian S60, Windows Phone 7.1 and Android 2.1 and 2.2.

“When we started WhatsApp in 2009, peoples use of mobile devices looked very different from today,” said a WhatsApp spokesperson in a blog post. “The Apple app Store was only a few months old. Mobile operating systems offered by Google, Apple and Microsoft – which account for 99.5 per cent of sales today – were on less than 25 per cent of mobile devices sold at the time.

“This was a tough decision for us to make, but the right one in order to give people better ways to keep in touch with friends, family and loved ones using WhatsApp. We recommend upgrading to a newer Android, iPhone or Windows Phones before the end of 2016 to continue using WhatsApp.”

The decision will come as a blow to BlackBerry, which has been fighting hard to be viewed as still relevant in the current mobile market. The companys most recent device, the Priv, abandoned the firms own operating system in favour of Android, while John Cho, CEO of BlackBerry, famously called for all apps to be available on all operating systems, saying it was against net neutrality principles for developers to do otherwise.

While the move is unlikely to affect WhatsApp users in the US and Europe, the lack of support for certain operating systems, in particular early Android, could have an impact in emerging markets, where earlier smartphone models and older OSs are still more widely used.