Less than a month ago, instant messaging giant WhatsApp announced that it will be dropping support for older mobile operating systems. This included BlackBerry’s operating system BlackBerry 10. Now another social media giant Facebook is abandoning BlackBerry’s platform.
According to a BlackBerry blog entry, Facebook has decided to discontinue support of their essential APIs for BlackBerry. “We are extremely disappointed in their decision as we know so many users love these apps,” reads the blog entry. “We fought back to work with WhatsApp and Facebook to change their minds, but at this time, their decision stands.”
When will Facebook stop supporting BlackBerry?
Media reports are suggesting that Facebook will drop support for BlackBerry OS by end of this year -just like WhatsApp, but a BlackBerry support article states Facebook app will stop working from 31st March, 2016 and requires an update before that.
“As of March 31st, 2016 an update to the Facebook application will be required for BlackBerry smartphones running BlackBerry 10 OS and BlackBerry OS versions 7.1 and earlier. If you wish to continue using Facebook, you are encouraged to move to the web-based experience which will provide the most feature rich alternative,” reads the support article.
How to continue using Facebook on BlackBerry after 31st March?
BlackBerry has listed two separate upgrades for BlackBerry OS 7.1 or earlier and BlackBerry 10 OS, which are required to be applied before 31st March. These upgrades will allow BlackBerry users to continue to access Facebook using a browser-based interface after Facebook support ends on 31st March.
Apps providing web-based interface to BlackBerry users will not have capabilities such as contact synchronization, BlackBerry Hub integration and the ability to share items like pictures and videos to Facebook using the Share icon.
Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows mobile operating systems hold 99.5 percent market share today. With other platforms including BlackBerry having share no more than half percent, Facebook’s move sounds justified. BlackBerry itself made a decision to introduce Android-powered phones.
It will be interesting to see BlackBerry’s next move.
Are you a BlackBerry user? Do share your thoughts with us.
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