WhatsApp ends Android 5 support Monday, iPhones follow in November

WhatsApp raises its minimum Android requirement on Monday, Sept. 8, 2026. Phones running Android 5.0 or 5.1 lose access to the messenger that day. WhatsApp states this in a footnote on its help page listing supported operating systems.

The same page names a second date that coverage of the Android cutoff has left out. On Nov. 30, 2026, WhatsApp raises the iPhone requirement as well, from iOS 15.1 to iOS 15.5. Both platforms are affected, on different dates and with very different consequences.

Android users need a different phone

Android 5.0 shipped in November 2014 and Android 6.0 arrived in October 2015. Phones that launched on Lollipop and never received a system upgrade will not get one now. Android 6 is not available for them. Anyone who wants to keep using WhatsApp needs a different handset.

No reliable figure exists for how many people this affects. StatCounter recorded 0.58 percent of mobile and tablet page views worldwide as Android 5.0 or 5.1 in August 2026. In Germany the figure was 1.67 percent. The measurement counts page views rather than devices, so the number indicates scale and nothing more. German outlet heise online cited roughly 0.4 percent in late April, based on Google's own distribution data.

iPhone owners only need an update

The November date has a different cause. iOS 15 runs on the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE (first generation), iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Apple released iOS 15.8.8 for those same devices on May 11, 2026, according to its security releases page.

Version 15.8.8 is well above the coming minimum of 15.5. No iPhone currently running iOS 15 is excluded by its hardware. Anyone who loses access in November has skipped the updates. Opening Settings, then General, then Software Update fixes that in a few minutes.

What to do before Monday

Affected users have been seeing the notice inside the app for weeks. Anyone with an Android 5 phone in the household should back up the chat history first. WhatsApp offers a Google Drive backup, and a local backup on the device can be moved to a newer phone later. Anyone passing the old handset on should also remove it from the list of linked devices.

The reasoning holds. Android 5.1 has not received security updates for years and its known vulnerabilities are numerous and documented. WhatsApp says it reviews every year which systems are outdated and have the fewest users. Meta has also tightened account security recently, replacing the six-digit PIN with a password.