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WhatsApp To End Support For BlackBerry, Nokia, and Other Older Operating Systems (whatsapp.com)
nerdyalien writes: While everybody is immersed in the Apple vs. FBI case, WhatsApp has posted a blog entry that could potentially alter the mobile landscape as we know it today. By the end of 2016, WhatsApp will no longer support many older mobile operating systems from BlackBerry, Nokia, Android and Windows Phone. Moving forward, WhatsApp will only support the latest and greatest iPhone, Android and Windows Phone platforms. With over 1 billion active users, and the backing of Facebook, is WhatsApp finally reducing the mobile landscape to a three-horse race ?
With over 1 billion active users, and the backing of Facebook, is WhatsApp finally reducing the mobile landscape to a three-horse race ?
Seriously Windows phone is less than 3%. The only thing keeping it in the vicinity of relevant is the money that Microsoft spends marketing it.
I certainly won't upgrade to a more modern iOS because of 10 WhatsApp contacts which I simply can call or use Viber.
Instead of "downgrading" their platform they should consider to make it available on iPads ... an app that uses internet and only runs on a phone but not on a pad with the same OS ... retarded.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
The modern app appers at AppApp know that ONLY apps can app apps, so they're simply not supporting LUDDITE operating systems like BlackBerry!
Apps!
Is the submitter claiming that WhatsApp retroactively killed Blackberry's market share with its decision to end support for the Blackberry platform now?
#DeleteChrome
So, WhatsApp is so powerful, that it's the reason we are a 3-Horse-Race?
The only thing I know about WhatsApp is I started getting spam claiming I have messages for a service I've never heard of.
Which means it's probably exactly what I think it is: some overhyped app which everybody claims is the next big thing and which has likely fleeced investors out of billions but will never make any money -- but which is now a great target for spammers as everybody will uncritically click anything claiming to be from them.
Am I right?
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
So they've removed their own horse from the race.
Another "messaging" app that somehow messages differently than regular text messages? Somehow, I doubt that their target market of dim-witted 10 year old kids is going to decide which phone OS's continue into the future.
I don't respond to AC's.
WhatsApp doesn't need to do anything. Reality has already reduced mobile to a two-horse race.
Do you have ESP?
WhatsApp's claim to fame originally was its ability to run on virtually anything, including the J2ME phones popular in the US and Europe in the mid-2000s. Those phones at least were still prevalent in many African and middle-eastern countries just a couple of years ago.
Have these markets also developed such that they are basically Android or iOS now?
Colin Dean Go a year without DRM
Why remove support from them? (I don't use any of them but Android FYI)
If you make a good protocol (or thread/program) between client and server, you shouldn't need to give a damn about supporting or updating anything when it is on an old OS.
All you'd need to do then is download a simple communication update to the program if you upgrade protocol features, like better security as a common example for updates.
Even the UI can easily be updated if you do it properly and not hardcode UI elements like most morons.
Hardcoding is just stupid and it only makes your life harder in the future if you want to update stuff.
More so, it allows you to support themeing programs very easily.
Still, at least it isn't as bad as Mozilla.
They have killed any reason to keep Firefox around because they shit on all the API developers by CHANGING AN API.
Hey, Mozilla, learn what APIs were supposed to be used for. Protip: to hide internals and changes to secondary developers.
Changes and new features are supposed to be hidden behind default values for old code unless it is a whole new API, which shouldn't affect anyone anyway!
Idiots.
If you have a good (and modern and still-maintained) web browser, then your OS (especially if we're talking mobile) is relevant. That's the only app most people need these days.
If WhatsApp doesn't have a web version, then it (whatever it is) is the one under constant threat of losing relevance.
Ok, yeah, I know what it is. But I don't use it. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who doesn't use it. So this will have zero effect on me.
This will only affect those people who use Whatsapp in anger. Many people who will no longer be able to use it will just switch to something else.
Note for developers: Niche market coming up for someone who wants to create a whatsapp type app that runs on older (as well as newer) mobile systems!
Early days of the internet: all standards fully and publicly documented, easily supported on any make and type of device that could be connected to the net, not controlled by any single entity, could be implemented by anyone who has a compiler, choice of many possible programs to use.
Modern internet: no standards, private company able to control which devices are allowed to use "their" messaging scheme used by billions of people and which devices should be excluded, also able to decide what content is acceptable, not implementable by anyone who has a compiler, only a single company-proprietary app can be used making ecosystem more vulnerable.
That's sure an improvement.
They didn't say that, they are actually supporting older versions, just not REALLY old versions
Horror & SciFi Erotic Nudes
WhatsApp, huh good God y'all
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, just say it again
WhatsApp whoa Lord
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, listen to me
WhatsApp, it ain't nothin' but a heartbreak
WhatsApp, friend only to the undertaker
... that is so complex that a simple messaging app can't support older versions of an OS? All it does is send text and picture data which AFAIK was supported by phones 10 years ago before smart phones even came on the market. So WTF excuse can they come up with that sounds genuine?
"they don't offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app's features in the future."
Oh riiiight. So they can't be bothered to continue current support even though it means NO EFFORT on their part. They just want everyone to see the New Shiny when it comes out. Idiots.
With over 1 billion active users, and the backing of Facebook, is WhatsApp finally reducing the mobile landscape to a three-horse race ?
This summary is entirely backwards. The mobile market is already a 2 horse race (with Windows phone only still on the track because of the insane money Microsoft has poured into it). WhatsApp is only responding to that fact, not driving it. There is no point in them supporting outdated products with < 1% of the market and no future. WhatsApp support (or lack thereof now) will have absolutely zero impact on the market.
BBM is included in my Blackberry OS and precludes the need for Whatsapp for Blackberrys, iPhones and Droids
WhatsApp is forcing older OS owners to move to Telegram.
Summation 2
Let's make WhatsApp available to everyone in the world!
I haven't loaded the Facebook app on my phone, and do not want the app for this either. Because it is Facebook-owned. And the privacy issues have already been reported a couple of years back (see e.g. the Wikipedia article).
In fact, I have the data on my phone turned off most of the time. No need for $HANDSET_COMPANY to spy on me and drain my batteries.
Also, no need for constant interruptions.
I just tell my friends that want me to also use it No. They can send me whatever via good old e-mail, etc. Will get it at the same time, whether e-mail or Whatsapp - at the moment I activate the data. Or of course phone me or SMS me. Yes, the fact that it costs a trivial amount of money is a desirable feature in my mind. I get enough drivel as it is.
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
Sort of, if you live in some third-world banana republic where MMS is outrageously expensive, but for the rest of the civilized world can I get a resounding "Who gives a shit?".
No one in the real world uses this crap. Can you imagine if you told your boss you were going to send him a "WhatsApp" after the meeting? Or tell your girlfriend you're going to "WhatsApp" her where to meet for dinner. Maybe you can "Sextapp" her too while she's at work.
No, in the real world we use SMS and MMS, email, and at least at my place of business, iMessage. Occasionally we'll use Skype for an overseas call or a quick video call. But seriously? A facebook-owned kiddie message toy is dropping support for some devices that the kiddies aren't using anyway? Yawn, as with anything facebook or twitter related, who cares?
The idea that support from WhatsApp somehow defines the viability of a phone platform is absurd. It is not a singular must-have application like MS Office, which even Jobs recognized as essential to the "legitimacy" of the Mac. It's just another messaging app.
im loving it, now anyone that wants to talk to me will have to "jews" something else
mwaahahahahah fucking finally
What on Earth is WhatsApp and why do I need one ?
in Brazil, by mobile phone operators: up to the app was blocked by a day, on Dec/2015 (but backing up almost immediately, after popular rage)
While as a Blackberry fan I'm always sorry to see a company cease BB support, this won't matter too much. The Amazon app store carries WhatsApp, and BB10 devices can install Android apps through the Amazon store as easily as native apps.
Even if you regard that third horse as barely in the race (which it is, it's already more of a two-horse race as you point out):
Regarding the question, "is WhatsApp finally reducing the mobile landscape to a three-horse race ?" - No, they aren't. Because that would require it to be more than a three-horse race currently. It isn't. It's barely even more than a two-horse race.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Someone stop them! (?)
Call the whatsaaaaaaambulance!
Never heard of it before...
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
"is WhatsApp finally reducing the mobile landscape to a three-horse race ?"
More like: the mobile landscape has been reduced to a three-horse race, and WhatsApp is developing for it.
I have been thinking that if Facebook dropped their support for Android, that could be the most effective way to kill the platform. It sounds like they just might agree!
If it's not obvious, the reason I think Android should be "killed" is because I observe that people really set themselves back by (trying to) use it. It doesn't seem to work as advertised and the security problems are going to come home to roost at some point.
By reducing the amount of Android phones in active use, Facebook could strengthen the economy by encouraging other developers to spend their time making great iOS (and watchOS and tvOS) apps instead of trying to make decent Android apps.
Not that I'm an Android developer, nor do I have any experience with WP, but I had the impression that Android apps can only run in the background as a service, and any app that wants to do so uninterruptedly will need to announce itself in the notification bar. So, they can run in the background forever, but not without you noticing. I don't see why this aspect makes Android less secure than WP.
And I have no idea what you mean by implying that Android apps can "cross over to mess with other apps". Android apps can't see each other's data.
Avantslash: low-bandwidth mobile slashdot.
I"m an Android user and I prefer the mobile website over the Android app to access Facebook.
I remember the original iPhone release, it had no ability for third party apps. Everything was done using the browser and Apple's Safari extensions.
You do realize you're defining the needs of the 1 by how 99 other people (people they don't know and will likely never meet) are choosing to satisfy different needs until different circumstances?
"The" market isn't just how 99 people satisfy their needs, it's how all 100 people satisfy their needs. In a good market, all 100 people achieve satisfaction.
"The" market as viewed through the corporate lens of WhatsApp is a different thing, of course.
In some aspects of my life, I'm part of the 99, in other aspects (because of a long standing sleep disorder), I'm definitely part of the 1 (and sometimes part of the 0.01).
Probably thirty percent of the 99-hugger sheep find themselves becoming the 1 some of the time. If they're not very smart, the presume that all the unmitigated extra difficulties caused by 99-hugging is the machinations of a perverse universe; if they're more insightful, they realize that they're own 99-hugging has an ugly cadmium lining.
They might even go so far as I did, and push the entire lot of 99-huggers over a cliff, so far as my voluntary personal associations are concerned.
Be conservative in what you send, generous in what you receive, and—ideally—exclude no one. This can almost always be achieved with less feature bling (which for me is a usually a good thing anyway, because I only end up trying to ignore or defeat the new shiny in any case).
WhatsApp just made themselves less relevant to the 1, and all of us who care about the 1, and the moral principles behind this.
Fair enough. It's their dog. But at least we can count the costs against the correct denominator.
They stop supporting me (Blackberry 10) so I stop supporting them. Not to mention they're not truly secure, vulnerable to the USA's increasingly lunatic and overreaching legislative, executive and judicial branches and value ad revenue over a paid subscription. Besides, it's become increasingly apparent that any centrally-controlled system, (creating a unique account on yet-another-walled-garden command-and-control server), is becoming obsolete in favour of distributed systems like Ricochet.im. WhatsApp is just going to become the dafault IM app for Facebook, so for those of us outside that particular cult, time to find another alternative.
This is quite ironic, given that the Whatsapp acquisition was purportedly worth $22B for the very reason that it would run on the oldest J2ME featurephones used by Masai warriors and Tibetan monks at the corners of the earth.