On the 21st of March 2016, Facebook made it known that it would not support Blackberry 10 devices starting sometime later this year. Facebook’s announcement stated that they would be withdrawing support from all older mobile platforms. Among the list to lose support for Facebook are Symbian 40 and Symbian s60 devices, Android v2.1 and v2.2 devices, Windows Phone 7.1 and all Blackberry devices including those that run on the latest BB OS 10.
Facebook will withdraw support for all Blackberry devices from the end of the year, which means that no official APK will be available to install the application on the device. In response to Facebook’s announcement, Blackberry announced an update with a native version of the app similar to a web-interfaced one, but it won’t come with the merits of the full version of the app. Facebook notifications and alerts, instant replies and calendar syncs will be thwarted for all BB users.
In the first week of March, Facebook had made another announcement which stated that support would be withdrawn from the above mentioned mobile platforms by WhatsApp too. The company elaborated that it was not easy to give up on older platforms, but in order to re-create ‘new’ and ‘fuller’ experiences old mobile platforms would have to be left behind.
Reports state that Blackberry has repeatedly urged both Facebook and WhatsApp to renew their support for Blackberry’s platforms, but have received no positive response in the matter.
For those that have been using Blackberry devices throughout, no support for Facebook and WhatsApp would mean a great deal, especially with the rest of the World owning a mix of cross-platform devices, where social apps such as these are the primary method of communication.
Add Comment