While much of the attention this week has been on Apple’s WWDC 2026 announcements, which includes iOS 27, WhatsApp has revealed that it will be ending support for older iOS versions later this year. Starting from 30 November 2026, devices running on iOS 15.4 or older will no longer be able to use the messaging app.
The company says it has worked to support both newer and older iOS versions in order to keep the messaging app accessible to as many users as possible. However, it notes that as the app continues to gain new features, its requirements will inevitably evolve.
As a result, some features rely on capabilities only available in newer versions of iOS, making older releases increasingly difficult to support. WhatsApp adds that maintaining support for older versions slows development and limits the features it can offer, making the decision to drop support a “necessary step”.
To recap, users will need to be running iOS 15.5 or later to continue using WhatsApp. The company also emphasised that the requirement applies to iPadOS 15.5. “WhatsApp conducts internal research before making decisions like this one to estimate how many users will be affected,” it said. “Since WhatsApp carefully manages its priorities to minimise disruption for all users, we expect the number of impacted users not to be very high.”
The company added that the change will also affect WhatsApp Business, as both apps share the same source code. Users running older versions of iOS or iPadOS will need to update their devices where possible to avoid service interruptions.
It is worth noting that WhatsApp is also making a similar change for Android users. Previously, the company announced that it will end support for devices running Android 5.0 and Android 5.1. However, affected Android users will lose access sooner, with support set to end in September 2026.
(Source: WhatsApp, via WABetaInfo)
