Whatsapp just dropped a very terrible news for all Blackberry Users, as well as some windows phone. By the end of 2016, WhatsApp will no longer work on most BlackBerry devices, even those loaded with the company’s latest mobile platform. In the blog post the WhatsApp team published today, they reminisced about their launch back in 2009, when most smartphones were either a BlackBerry or a Nokia. It was a different time, and the Facebook-owned app’s developers have to cut them off, because the platforms “don’t offer the kind of capabilities [they] need to expand [their] app’s features in the future.”
Besides dropping support for BB’s OS, the app will also stop working on Nokia S40 and Symbian S60, Android 2.1 and 2.2, as well as Windows Phone 7.1 devices by the end of the year. That said, you don’t have to abandon BlackBerry completely if you’re a loyal BB and WhatsApp user.
Don’t forget that the Canadian company released an Android phone called the Priv in 2015, this is a turn-up for the books. After almost four years of banging the BlackBerry 10 drum it seems the Canadian firm has finally admitted defeat, launching its first Android smartphone in the BlackBerry Priv.
BlackBerry 10 suffered from a severe lack of top-flight applications, and an interface which wasn’t quite as intuitive for the general public as the now familiar Android and iOS.
That’s all been addressed, with the BlackBerry Priv sporting Google’s stock Android platform, and with it access to the app-packed Play Store.
Coupled with a tasty sounding display, some handy BB apps and BlackBerry’s legendary keyboard the Priv is finally helping the Canadian firm to make some positive strides in the market. But is it all a little too late again from the firm that was left behind by the original smartphone revolution?
