Owners of some phones will discover that they won't be able to use WhatsApp from today. The devices which run the Series 40 operating system will no longer be supported in 2019. Perhaps worrying is that some of the phones that ran the S40 OS were enormously expensive. The Vertu Signature S, for example, was around £8000 at launch and now won't be able to run WhatsApp.However, that phone is over 10 years old now and most people who had the money to buy one would probably replace it every few months anyway. However more mainstream devices like the Nokia 6300 are also affected.
This change is likely to have a considerable impact on some people, especially older users who keep a phone for talking to the family but who aren't big smartphone users. For groups like these and perhaps low-income families, the change might be bothersome. The last phone produced that ran S40 was the Nokia 515 which was released in 2013.
Some time ago WhatsApp prevented these devices from registering with the service. Phones that already had installed and verified their account could carry on accessing the service until yesterday but will no longer connect from today.WhatsApp says the following phones will be affected; Nokia 206 Single SIM and dual SIM models.
Nokia 208
Nokia 301 Single SIM and dual SIM Chat Edition
Nokia 515 Preinstalled WhatsApp New
Nokia Asha 201
Nokia Asha 205 Chat Edition
Nokia Asha 210
Nokia Asha 230 Single SIM and dual SIM models
Nokia Asha 300
Nokia Asha 302
Nokia Asha 303
Nokia Asha 305
Nokia Asha 306
Nokia Asha 308
Nokia Asha 309
Nokia Asha 310
Nokia Asha 311
Nokia Asha 500
Nokia Asha 501
Nokia Asha 502
Nokia Asha 503
Nokia C3-00
Nokia C3-01
Nokia X2-00
Nokia X2-01
Nokia X3-02
Nokia x3-02.5