WhatsApp, Meta’s free-to-use instant messaging and calling platform, is a staple for almost every Android smartphone user worldwide. However, with WhatsApp’s ever-growing capabilities, the minimum requirement to run WhatsApp also gets updated, and some older smartphones will lose permanent access to the application.
According to a report by HDblog, published on December 20, over 20 different Android smartphones will lose access to WhatsApp on January 1, the first day of the new year. This is especially true for devices still running Android KitKat or an earlier operating system version. Besides WhatsApp, there is a higher probability that some other Meta apps, such as Facebook and Instagram, will soon stop working on these mobiles. Interestingly, some of the smartphones in this list come from brands like HTC and LG, which stopped making smartphones years ago.
Do note that all devices set to lose access to WhatsApp are almost at least 10 years old. Hence, even if you have an Android smartphone that is five or six years old, WhatsApp will continue functioning as expected. However, if you have one of the smartphones mentioned below, we recommend you back up all the WhatsApp chats to a Google account to ensure easy restoration of all the chats to a new smartphone.
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Smartphones that will lose WhatsApp support |
| Moto E 2014 |
| HTC One X |
| HTC One X+ |
| HTC Desire 500 |
| HTC Desire 601 |
| HTC Optimus G |
| HTC Nexus 4 |
| LG G2 Mini |
| LG L90 |
| Sony Xperia Z |
| Sony Xperia SP |
| Sony Xperia T |
| Sony Xperia V |
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