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WhatsApp has published a new support document that shares details on ending support for devices running iOS 9 and earlier versions of the operating system (OS).

To date, iOS 9 users were able to use the encrypted chat service.

However, now iOS 10 is required which means users will need an iPhone 5 or later model to use WhatsApp.

The change will affect users of the iPhone 4S for the most part, but this is still only a tiny percentage of iPhone users.

"In December. Apple confirmed that 81 per cent of iPhone users are running iOS 14, with a further 17 per cent on iOS 13 or earlier, which means that only 2 per cent of iPhone users are running a version of iOS 12 or earlier," reports iMore.

Last year, the Facebook-owned messaging service dropped support for iOS 8 and older versions of the operating system.

WhatsApp is working on a new password protection feature that will encrypt chat backups in Cloud, making them accessible only to the users.

WhatsApp chats are end-to-end encrypted but this protection currently doesn't apply to online backups stored on Google Drive and Apple iCloud.