The internet is all up in panic at the news that the world's most popular messaging application will end its support for several smartphone platforms by the end of the year. While the news certainly sound very ominous and something to be wary about, it is quite harmless really. There is a 99.999 percent chance that WhatsApp will continue to work normally on your beloved smartphone even after 2018 begins and your new year resolutions go for a toss.

WhatsApp is going to stop working on the following platforms as of December 31, 2017 - Blackberry OS, BlackBerry 10 and Windows Phone 8.0 (Yes, there was an operating system called Blackberry 10 - look it up online). BB10 powered smartphones like Blackberry Z10, Z30 and more that BlackBerry itself has forgotten about.

There is a 99.9 per cent chance that WhatsApp will continue to work normally on your beloved smartphone even after 2018 begins and your new year resolutions go for a toss.

Windows Phone 8.0 was a stellar operating system that did not get the love it deserved from Microsoft - a sad, unloved child that got lost in the war between iOS and Android. While a few ardent Windows Phone loyalists will be quite unhappy at WhatsApp's decision, the cold hard truth of the matter is that it will not impact the general smartphone public in any way thanks to WP's negligible market share.

BlackBerry OS is a relic of the past (released way back in 1999) that powered iconic smartphones like BlackBerry Curve and Bold. It is a miracle WhatsApp supported the operating system as long as they did. Frankly speaking, if you own any phone running BB OS, BB10 or even the relatively better off Windows Phone 8.0 - you should not be worried about WhatsApp, you should be looking for a new smartphone.

All these are dead platforms that are used by an extremely small subset of users.

The sad truth of the matter is that Android and iOS have completely decimated any competition in the mobile software sphere and created a duopoly. It does not make sense for WhatsApp to invest money and resources in developing applications for basically dead platforms with next to nothing market shares.

After BB OS, BB10 and Windows Phone 8.0, Nokia S40 is next to get the cut on December 31, 2018. This is also quite an old platform which hasn't seen a new phone release in a long while. New feature phoned by Nokia (under HMD Global) run on the S30+ platform and do not support WhatsApp outright.

All these are dead platforms that are used by an extremely small subset of users. For the majority of you out there, December 31 will come and go without any inconvenience whatsoever. The major problem might come after February 1, 2020 when WhatsApp will pull the plug from Android versions older than 2.3.7. Hopefully by then Android Gingerbread will be nothing but a faded memory. Although with Android's abysmal update rate that seems unlikely.

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