Although there are several devices that are on the list of obsolete iPhones, the truth is that this does not indicate that they cannot continue to be functional. Now, over the years, it is the ones on that list that tend to lose certain functionalities, such as ending up being incompatible with some applications. It is the case of WhatsApp, which recently stopped supporting other Apple smartphones.
It must be said that in the end this is normal and that is that Meta, the new name of Facebook’s parent company and owner of WhatsApp, cannot indefinitely maintain a development team capable of optimizing its application on old devices. And although it could be moderately possible, it is not profitable neither to this nor to many other companies due to the fact that the hardware of these computers is lagging further and further behind while the users who continue to maintain these computers are very minority.
The ‘5’ are added to the list of iPhone without WhatsApp
A few weeks ago WhatsApp definitively announced that it would stop supporting iPhone 5 and iPhone 5c. These devices that share a good part of the hardware also offer a version of software that is already very obsolete, such as iOS 10.3.4.
Therefore, the list of iPhones not supported by WhatsApp It remains like this, waiting for more models to be added in the coming years:
- iPhone (original)
- iPhone 3G
- iPhone 3GS
- Iphone 4
- Iphone 4s
- iPhone 5
- Iphone 5c
If you have a iPhone with iOS 12 or later, or what is the same, a iPhone 5s or later, you can continue using WhatsApp without problem. Even in that mentioned iPhone 5s and in the iPhone 6 that no longer receive iOS updates for a few years. It is foreseeable that they will be the next to join the list, but for the moment they remain.
What if you already have WhatsApp installed?
If you are still a carrier of one of those obsolete iPhones and you even use the WhatsApp app on it, you should know that a priori you might not find any problem to continue sending and receiving messages with your contacts. Nevertheless you will not be able to receive new app updates and it is likely that at some point the servers will no longer be available to them and, at that moment, you will not be able to communicate through it.
What in no case can be done is download the app from the App Store, as it will not appear or will give an error when trying to download. Even if you had it installed at some point or just deleted it, this action will not be able to be carried out.
It should be noted that, as you probably already anticipated, WhatsApp is not the only oneapp that carries out actions like these. In fact, being so popular, it takes the longest to leave old iPhones behind, while other applications become obsolete much earlier.