WhatsApp is set to stop working on lots of people’s phones next year

9 May 2019, 14:59 | Updated: 9 May 2019, 15:00

By Naomi Bartram

@naomibartram

Popular messaging app WhatsApp have announced they'll be withdrawing support on thousands of phones.

It’s bad news for Windows Phone users, as Whatsapp has announced it will stop working on all their smartphones in six months time.

Seemingly trying to go under the radar, the popular messaging app updated an old blog post first published back in February 2016.

Attached to the original message, it announced they would be withdrawing support on all Windows Phone systems by the end of the year.

The company explained: “You'll no longer be able to use all Windows Phone operating systems after December 31, 2019.

"Because we will no longer actively develop for these platforms, some features may stop functioning at any time."

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They added: “While the app may initially continue to work, you’ll likely start encountering major bugs as WhatsApp continues to make changes on its end and Windows phone grows stale.”

The Windows Phone operating system was launched in October 2010, but in January 2019 Microsoft announced that it would no longer support the software as user numbers continue to drop.

Whatsapp will also stop working on Android versions 2.3.7 and older after February 1, 2020 and iPhone iOS 7 and older after February 1, 2020.

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It's already withdrawn support for operating systems such as Nokia Symbian S60, Nokia Series 40, BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10.

WhatsApp was launched in 2009 and now 1.5billion users log in to the app every month, with around 38 billion messages sent daily.

Facebook bought the tech giants for a whopping £14.9 billion in February 2014.