A lot of smartphone users using WhatsApp application on their mobile phones will no longer be able to use the free chat from the said app as it will cut off its support to millions of phones.  This is particularly true to older devices such as iPhone 3GS and Android handsets.

WhatsApp engineers are about to stop supporting the said devices. Users of these devices will not able to send and receive messages any longer if that happens.

The change was first announced by WhatsApp early this year. It was stated that this change will take place by end of this year. Apparently, there are only a few more days left before it happens.

There was a blog post published in February which says that if you are using one of the affected mobile devices specified above, the company is encouraging users to upgrade to a newer Android, iPhone or Windows phone before the end of this year to continue using WhatsApp.

According to Independent, WhatsApp updated its post, later on, to confirm that support for BlackBerry phones will be extended until the end of second quarter next year. This is in response to users' pressure. By end of June 2017, every BlackBerry phone will lose contact with WhatsApp even the new ones like the BlackBerry 10.

By the end of this year, the company will cut off its support for the iPhone 3GS, phones running Windows Phone 7, and any device that uses Android 2.1 or Android 2.2.

This is indeed a sad news to end 2016 as almost everyone with a smartphone is using WhatsApp's free chat application in their phones. But then again, this could just be some sort of marketing strategy to increase the sales of the newer iOS and Android devices. There are other options like FB messenger and Viber anyway.