Will WhatsApp stop to work on some devices?

It’s been now a couple of weeks that there is the rumor that very soon Whatsapp will stop to work on some devices. Is it only a fake news or is there something true? Let’s find out it together.

Whatsapp will stop to work on some devices… for real

Already since the very first days of the month of december of the 2020 the web filled up with news that allerted the users about a quick stop of Whatsapp, on the oldest devices.

However we aren’t talking about a small newspapers “looking for views”, the news popped up on the most important ones, for this reason it can’t be a fake news.

Like always the news brought to alarmisms, but in reality there is nothing to be worry. The new is real, even if many thought it wasn’t. In reality it is something that happens every year.

It is, infact, an usual upgrade, that the developers do every year, more or less between january and february. And, because of this upgrade, Whatsapp  will stop to work on some devices. But they are very old devices, that almost disappeared.

Whatsapp will stop to work if you don’t agree to the new terms about the privacy

There is, though, another news that is going around the web: whatsapp will stop to work if you don’t agree to the new terms about the privacy.

The message about the change of the terms about the privacy says “Whatsapp is upgrading its terms and the informations about privacy. By touching “accept”, you will accept the new terms about the privacy, that will start from the 8th of february of the 2021. After this data you will have to accept these upgrades or you won’t be able to use whatsapp anymore.

You can even visit the customer care if you prefere to eliminate your account and you would like more informations”.

Obviusly this put all in panic and many started to think about a conspiracy. And it was even this information that increased the rumor that Whatsapp will soon stop to work on many devices.

In reality even the news about the modify of the privacy isn’t unusual. The panic and the conspiracy were thought made by the fact that, as we know, Whatsapp is part of the big Facebook family, and this upgrade is right focused to improve the interaction between the two socials, by letting Facebook use the informations of Whatsapp.

The upgrades won’t occur in Europe

Lines of paranoid shouted to the conspiracy, without know, anyway, that this upgrade won’t occur in Italy, as well as in the whole Europe. 

The Europian Union, infact, has strict rules about privacy. The law, which is much more strict here than to the other side of the ocean, is clear and it forbids to Whatsapp to share the datas of its users with Facebook. Furthermore, we aren’t talking about the same company neither. Because while the american users, as well as the ones of the rest of the world, are managed by Whatsapp Inc, in all the European Union countries and in the United Kingdom there is Whatsapp Ireland.

The company wanted to calm down the users by saying that “there isn’t any change on the modes of sharing of the datas of Whatsapp in europe, included United Kingdom. We don’t share the datas of the users of the european area with Facebook to let Facebook use these datas to improve its products and its advertising”.

Which devices will stop to work

If the terms about the privacy won’t occur in europe, the usual upgrade will. Anyway it was made a fuss of nothing. It is more than a month that there is the rumor that whatsapp will stop to work on the old devices, many if which are still around.

They talked, even, of the iPhone 5S, the Samsung Galaxy 2, the HTC Desire. Infact, the rumor said that whatsapp will stop to work on the operating system previous than iOs 9, Android 4.0.3 and KaiOS 2.5.1.

This made a lot of confusion, especially between the users Apple that are still using the first models of iPhone. Anyway, at the end the official new arrived, and it denies the news. Whatsapp won’t stop to work on any iPhone after the 4. But this isn’t a news, because the iPhone 4 was already cutted off with the upgrade of the 2020.

During the 2020 whatsapp stopped to work on any old models: Gingerbread (Android 2.3.7), the whole line honeycomb (Android 3.0-3.2.6) and three versions of Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0-4.0.1-4.0.2).

Now Whatsapp will leave the devices that use the version Android 4.0.3 until the end of the month. This is the only real news of the 2021, which then it didn’t have to make all these debates, because the models of smartphones that are using it are very old and the number of users is derisory.

This post is also available in: Italiano