There had been speculation that the handset-maker would wind down support for Blackberry 10 after it released a smartphone running Android, and closed its “Built for Blackberry” programme for app developers. But the company told the BBC: “BlackBerry is committed to our BlackBerry 10 operating system, and we work closely with developers to create and deploy solutions to bring apps to our consumer and enterprise fans.
“While the app landscape continues to evolve, our commitment to BlackBerry 10 and our developers is unwavering.
“We are actively exploring alternatives for BlackBerry users once support of WhatsApp Messenger for BBOS and BlackBerry 10 ends in late 2016.”
The full list of operating systems WhatsApp will stop supporting is:
- Android 2.1 and Android 2.2
- Blackberry OS 7 and earlier
- Blackberry 10
- Nokia S40
- Nokia Symbian S60
- Windows Phone 7.1
“While these mobile devices have been an important part of our story, they don’t offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app’s features in the future,” WhatsApp said in a blogpost.
“When we started WhatsApp in 2009… about 70 percent of smartphones sold at the time had operating systems offered by BlackBerry and Nokia.”
The firm said mobile operating systems offered by Google, Apple and Microsoft accounted for 99.5% of sales today.
According to WhatsApp Team:
As announced, WhatsApp Messenger will no longer be supported on BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10 by the end of 2016.Until then, we support any BlackBerry device that meets the following requirements:
- The BlackBerry is running one of the following operating systems: OS 7+.
- The BlackBerry is subscribed to a full BIS (BlackBerry Internet Service) data plan.
- Note: The BlackBerry Priv and DTEK50 are supported Android devices.
