The Meta-owned popular instant messaging app will drop support for versions older than Android 6 starting September 8, 2026. This means if you have a smartphone running an older Android OS, WhatsApp will stop working on that device.
Android users will be able to access WhatsApp as long as they are on the latest supported version of the app and running Android 6 or newer.
While WhatsApp continues to work on introducing new features for the future, the Meta app also knows that maintaining appropriate minimum requirements is important. New features usually need better system capabilities and higher performance.
This means older devices and operating systems may not be able to handle them well. It can also stop WhatsApp from adding some new features if they don’t work properly on older Android versions. As a result, WhatsApp is now announcing that it will drop support for certain versions of Android.
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“The current supported version of WhatsApp for Android requires Android OS 5.0 or newer. This means that the app can run with the necessary stability and performance on a large number of devices. However, even as the Android ecosystem is moving toward Android 17, a certain number of users still rely on outdated devices,” WABetaInfo, a website that tracks WhatsApp, reported.
According to the report, this is especially common in countries such as India, Brazil, Pakistan, and across parts of Southeast Asia and Africa, where older smartphones are widely used. Many of these devices run versions much older than Android 10, which are no longer updated by manufacturers.
“This creates a growing gap between modern software requirements and older hardware still in active use,” the report said.
WhatsApp is notifying affected users by displaying an alert as soon as they open the app. The message notes that starting on September 8, 2026, WhatsApp will no longer be available on specific versions of Android.
Specifically, WhatsApp will drop support for all Android versions older than Android 6.0.
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This means phones running Android 5.0 and 5.1 won’t be able to use WhatsApp after this date. Even though only a small number of users are on these versions, WhatsApp still goes ahead with such updates. It is best to back up your chats before it’s too late.
WhatsApp is advising users to back up their chats to avoid losing data. You can easily do this using Google Drive from the app settings. If you don’t want to use cloud storage or don’t have space, you can also use a local backup.
WhatsApp automatically saves chats on your phone’s internal storage, which you can transfer manually later if needed.
No impact on iPhone users
This change only affects Android users. iPhones and iPads are not impacted. WhatsApp will continue to work on devices running iOS 15.1 and above.
The change currently applies only to Android devices and their minimum operating system requirements. For now, iOS users can continue using WhatsApp as usual without updating their devices due to this update.
What should you do?
If your phone runs Android 5.0 or 5.1, you’ll need to either update your software (if possible) or switch to a newer device to keep using WhatsApp. This applies to both WhatsApp Messenger and WhatsApp Business.
Source: Times Now
--Agencies
