The Facebook owned WhatsApp will stop working on IOS systems by December of this year, according to an article appearing on bbc.com. The company said it wanted to focus development "on the mobile platforms the vast majority of people use".

However, WhatsApp will still work on Blackberry's latest smartphone which runs Android.

Most of the operating systems that WhatsApp is dropping support for are operating systems that are no longer updated or installed on new devices. The exception is Blackberry 10, which was launched in Jan. 2013 and is still being developed by Blackberry.

"While these mobile devices have been an important part of our story, they don't offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app's features in the future," WhatsApp said in a blog post.

By the end of 2016, WhatsApp will be ending support for Nokia S40, Nokia Symbian S60, Blackberry OS 7 and earlier, Blackberry 10, Windows Phone 7.1, Android 2.1 and Android 2.2.

“While these mobile devices have been an important part of our story, they don’t offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app’s features in the future,” WhatsApp said. “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.”