WhatsApp is one of the most essential apps for smartphone users in the UK and around the world given its ease of use and ubiquity across iPhone and Android. Many now use it as the default messaging service over traditional SMS or the text messaging app preinstalled on smartphones.

You may well have been happily using WhatsApp for years, but according to a new report, the Meta-owned firm is planning to drop support for older versions of Android, which could leave millions of people with older devices unable to access the app once changes have been made.

That’s according to WABetaInfo, which reports WhatsApp is planning to drop support for Android phones running OS versions older than Android 6 on September 8, 2026. Given the latest version released by Google is Android 16 and Android 6 was released in 2015, it is unlikely that the Android phone in your pocket will be affected.

The latest figures from Statcounter shows worldwide usage of Android 5.0 is at 0.69 percent – that sounds low, but as Tech Advisor notes, given the estimated more than 4 billion Android users globally, that could amount to about 3 million devices.

So, if you are using an Android phone from about ten years ago, it might still be working fine for you. But beware that come September 8, it’s possible you will one day wake up to find WhatsApp no longer works.

The only way around this will be to invest in a new, up to date Android phone. That;s probably a good idea regardless, as any phones still running Android 5.0 will not have been receiving security updates for years at this point, and other popular apps may well not be working properly.

WABetaInfo posted the below image it found when using a future version of WhatsApp, which is how the publication finds new features and updates before they are pushed out to the masses. It says you will see a pop up that reads “Later this year, WhatsApp won’t work on this device”.

It wisely prompts you to backup your chats, which on Android you can do to your linked Google account. That means when you get a new Android phone you can upload your entire chat history and not lose any conversations or photos.

The other good news is that modern Android phones have much longer software support than phones from a decade ago. Even the mid-range £499 Google Pixel 10a released this year will get seven full years of software updates. Back in 2015 it was agonisingly normal to buy a phone for that price and get just one year of updates.