WhatsApp will stop supporting over 40 phone models including iPhone, Samsung from December 31

While these phone models have not been phased out and are still very much in the market, the Whatsapp upgrade will, however, affect them as their operating systems will not be compatible with WhatsApp's new features.

'To keep up with the latest advances in tech, we routinely stop supporting older operating systems to point our resources to supporting the latest ones,' 

'These devices also might not have the latest security updates, or might lack the functionality required to run WhatsApp.' the messaging service said.

This simply means that after the stated date, users who own the affected phones will stop receiving WhatsApp security updates and new features.

Eventually, the service will stop working for them.

According to the DailyMail, users of the affected phones will be sent an alert by WhatsApp before it stops working. 

In this recent announcement, 47 phone models across different phone brands have been affected and include:

Apple iPhone 5

Apple iPhone 5c

Archos 53 Platinum

Grand S Flex ZTE

Grand X Quad V987 ZTE

HTC Desire 500

Huawei Ascend D

Huawei Ascend D1

Huawei Ascend D2

Huawei Ascend G740

Huawei Ascend Mate

Huawei Ascend P1

Quad XL

Lenovo A820

LG Enact

LG Lucid 2

LG Optimus 4X HD

LG Optimus F3

LG Optimus F3Q

LG Optimus F5

LG Optimus F6

LG Optimus F7

LG Optimus L2 II

LG Optimus L3 II

LG Optimus L3 II Dual

LG Optimus L4 II

LG Optimus L4 II Dual

LG Optimus L5

LG Optimus L5 Dual

LG Optimus L5 II

LG Optimus L7

LG Optimus L7 II

LG Optimus L7 II Dual

LG Optimus Nitro HD

Memo ZTE V956

Samsung Galaxy Ace 2

Samsung Galaxy Core

Samsung Galaxy S2

Samsung Galaxy S3 mini

Samsung Galaxy Trend II

Samsung Galaxy Trend Lite

Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2

Sony Xperia Arc S

Sony Xperia miro

Sony Xperia Neo L

Wiko Cink Five

Wiko Darknight ZT