WhatsApp Now Requires iPhone 5 or Later, iOS 10 or Higher

WhatsApp Now Requires iPhone 5 or Later, iOS 10 or Higher

A newly published WhatsApp support document shows that WhatsApp has ended support of iOS 9 and earlier, requiring all users to be running iOS 10 or higher.

The requirement limits device compatibility for the end-to-end encrypted messaging service to the iPhone 5 or later, as it is the earliest device that supports iOS 10

According to the support document on the WhatsApp website, these are the new requirements to install the app:

  • Android running OS 4.0.3 and newer
  • iPhone running iOS 10 and newer
  • Select phones running KaiOS 2.5.1 newer, including JioPhone and JioPhone 2

The Facebook-owned messaging system last year dropped support for iOS 8 and lower.

Users that are still running WhatsApp on an unsupported device are strongly recommended to export their entire chat history for importing on to a newer device before the app stops working completely.