WHATSAPP will no longer support some phones by the New Year, forcing a lot of people to upgrade their handset if they need to use it.

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WHATSAPP can now not support older phones by the New Year, forcing countless people to upgrade their handset if they need to continue using it.

The popular electronic messaging app has over a billion users, however will shut down on certain mobiles due to changes in technology.

The company said in a blog post: “When we started WhatsApp in 2009, people’s use of mobile devices looked very different from today.

“The Apple App Store was only a couple of months old. concerning 70 per cent of smartphones sold-out at the time had operating systems offered by BlackBerry and Nokia.

“Mobile operating systems offered by Google, Apple and Microsoft — that account for 99.5 per cent of sales today — were on less than 25 per cent of mobile devices sold-out at the time.”

WhatsApp last year announced it might stop running on a variety of models, as well as iPhones, android phones and Windows phones.

And as of January 1, the software will shut down on BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10 and Windows Phone 8.0 and older.

Support for the Nokia S40 also will stop after December 31 next year, whereas android versions 2.3.7 and older will stop to operate from Feb 1, 2020.

The company said: “This was a tough call for us to create, however the proper one so as to give individuals better ways in which to keep in touch with friends, family, and loved ones using WhatsApp.

“If you employ one in every of these affected mobile devices, we suggest upgrading to a newer android, iPhone, or Windows Phone.”

WHATSAPP under attack

The news comes when Germany’s competition watchdog said that Facebook was abusing its dominant position to “limitlessly” harvest user information from outside websites and apps, permitting its advertisers to focus on customers with hyper-specific ads.

In a preliminary assessment, the Federal cartel office (FCO) said it had targeted its probe on the us social media giant’s use of third-party sites to trace users’ browsing behaviour, typically without their knowledge.

“The authority holds the read that Facebook is abusing this dominant position by creating the employment of its social network conditional on its being allowed to limitlessly amass all kinds of information generated by victimization third-party websites,” the FCO same during a statement.

These third parties embrace Facebook-owned services like WhatsApp and Instagram, however additionally sites and apps that are less obviously linked to Facebook, often through the “like” button at very cheap of an internet page.

The FCO said several users were unaware their movements on alternative sites were being shadowed by Facebook, which it “can also not be assumed” that users consent to the information assortment.

“Consumers must be more control over these processes and Facebook must give them with appropriate choices to effectively limit this collection of data,” it said.

WEALTH of information

The data transmitted from third sources give Facebook a wealth of data about its users, from that the Silicon Valley titan benefits financially by giving targeted advertising on its website.

FCO president Andreas Mundt same the social network’s advertising area was “so valuable” exactly as a result of it’s “huge amounts of personalized knowledge at its disposal”.

Facebook has over thirty million active monthly users in FRG, creating it the foremost widespread social network.

The online giant, that has also return under fire in different countries for its use of information harvesting, told afp in an emailed response that it might reply to the FCO’s queries.

But it said the preliminary report “paints an inaccurate picture”, stressing that Facebook wasn’t a dominant company which it complied with European data protection laws.

The antitrust watchdog expects to complete its probe by mid-2018, some 2 years when it was launched.

The FCO doesn’t have the ability to slap Facebook with a fine, however the company is forced to change or perhaps stop a number of its activities.

The German scrutiny marks another setback for Facebook in Europe at a time of heightened concerns over the trailing of personal data on-line.

On Monday, France’s data protection agency told WhatsApp it needed to obtain users’ permission to transfer some data to its parent company Facebook, and gave it a month to abide by.