Your Android may no longer support WhatsApp in a few short months.
The eagle-eyed team at WABetaInfo has spotted that the Meta-owned chat app will stop working on Android devices running versions 5.0 and 5.1 starting on September 8. That means if your smartphone is about a decade old and hasn't had a software update in years, you could wake up one day to find the messaging app simply won't open anymore.
While Android 5.0 accounts for less than one per cent of global users, that still translates to roughly 3 million devices worldwide that will lose access to the popular messaging service.
While the Android ecosystem is moving towards version 17 of its operating system, plenty of people still rely on handsets stuck on much older software.
According to WABetaInfo, WhatsApp has already started sending alerts to people using these older devices. When you open the app, you'll see a message warning that the service won't be available on your phone later this year.
It's been spotted that WhatsApp will stop working on Android devices running versions 5.0 and 5.1 starting on September 8
|If your mobile device runs Android 5.1 or earlier, you may want to save your conversations before the cutoff date, as they will disappear afterwards. You can back up your chat history directly to Google Drive through the app's settings, which means all your messages and photos will be waiting for you on a new device.
To manually back up your chats, follow these steps:
- Tap
> Settings
- Tap Chats > Chat backup
- Tap Back up
You can back up your WhatsApp chat history directly to Google Drive through the app's settings
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You can also set up recurring backups so your messages are constantly being saved in the background:
- Tap
- Tap Chat backup > Back up to your Google Account.
- Select a backup schedule other than Never or Only when I tap “Back up”.
- Select the Google Account you’d like to back up your chats to.
- If you don't have a Google Account connected, tap Add account when prompted and enter your login information.
- Tap Back up using cellular to select the network you want to use for backups.
WhatsApp's Help Centre also says you can set your chat back-up to Daily so your chats will be saved overnight.
If you don't have enough cloud storage in Google Drive, there's another option. The app automatically creates a local backup file on your phone's internal storage, which you can transfer manually to a newer handset when the time comes.
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WABetaInfo says Apple users can breathe easy here. iPhones and iPads running iOS 15.1 or later won't be touched by this update, so you can carry on using WhatsApp without any worries.
WhatsApp has been undergoing several updates recently. The platform is developing an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered feature that lets you get summaries of all your unread chats in one go.
You may soon be asked to pay to unlock its latest subscription features in a monthly subscription service.
And if you're looking to protect more of your information, you may soon be able to hide your phone number with a username.