The Asha 503 (pic) were among some of the last Series 40 phones by Nokia, which could run WhatsApp. However the messenger service has ended support for the OS.
WhatsApp has ended support for older Nokia phones that run on the 20-year-old Nokia Series 40 operating system, suggesting users adopt Android, iOS or Windows Phone software instead.
"This was a tough decision for us to make, but the right one in order to give people better ways to keep in touch with friends, family, and loved ones using WhatsApp," it said, hinting at stability issues with the older system.
Series 40, better known as S40, was introduced in 1999 and meant for Nokia's mid-tier feature phones giving access to some smartphone apps. However its Symbian software was used for actual smartphones.
The ending of support affects some 31 models including Nokia 515 and 208 which prominently advertised being pre-installed with WhatsApp, as well as the touchscreen Asha 505.
To note, even the most recent of these models are five to six years old.
WhatsApp says that unfortunately there is no chat history backup system on Nokia S40 phones, so there is no way to recover lost chat history data.
S40 was once one of the most popular mobile phone OS, with Nokia revealing it sold over 1.5 billion devices on the OS as of Jan 25, 2012.
However, following Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia's mobile phone business in 2014, it ended production of S40 devices in favour of the Series 30+ line.
