WhatsApp plans to drop support for multiple iPhones by the end of 2022. This is a common measure in large service platforms because it is expensive to maintain very old versions that maximize their user reach. That’s why WhatsApp has decided to cut to the essentials and abandon several older iPhone models.
WhatsApp 2022: iOS 10 and iOS 11 are left out
As reported by WhatsAppBetaInfo, WhatsApp plans to drop support for iOS 10 and iOS 11
- iPhone 5 from 2012, with A6 processor and 1 GB of RAM.
- iPhone 5c from 2013, with A6 processor and 1 GB of RAM.
Both iPhones were left at the gates of iOS 12 without being able to update. Despite this, and as is often said, the end of official support for iOS does not mean that the iPhone stops working. That This will depend on the services you use.
As this screenshot shows, WhatsApp will stop supporting these iPhones from October 24, 2022. On its website, it is already stated that iOS 12 is the minimum recommended version to receive WhatsApp support. The company is starting to alert users about this, encouraging them to update to the latest version. If your iPhone does not support it, you will need to buy a new one or switch to other platforms.
According to data from Apple itself, 7% of users who logged into the App Store in January 2022 had software on or before iOS 13. This statistic is important because it’s the best way to get an idea of the makeup of the current user base from Apple.
Without knowing the exact amount, we can deduce that there will be a very small percentage of users are still using an iPhone 5 or iPhone 5c. In any case, a small percentage of a large number are still many users.