Outdated BlackBerry telephones will cease performing on January 4

Backside line: BlackBerry introduced this week that it’ll cease assist for legacy providers operating its working system within the subsequent few days. Performance that merely will not be there anymore consists of basic items like making cellphone calls and textual content messaging, successfully ending the lifetime of older BlackBerry telephones (all fashions not operating Android) as communication gadgets.

The unique announcement that BlackBerry was ending legacy OS assist got here in September 2020. This week the corporate issued a reminder together with an intensive FAQ outlining what customers ought to do. On January 4, legacy providers for BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier, BlackBerry 10 software program, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 and earlier, will finish.

Units operating these working methods, which the FAQ lists, gained’t have the ability to make calls, ship texts, and even dial 9-1-1 over mobile or Wi-Fi.

This additionally consists of BlackBerry Desktop, Lin, Mix, World, Defend, Password Keeper, PIN to PIN gadget messaging, Enhanced Sim Based mostly Licensing, and Identification Based mostly Licensing. BlackBerry-hosted e mail addresses may even cease working, even on different platforms like Android and iOS.

BBM for Enterprise and BBM Enterprise for Particular person use will nonetheless work by way of BlackBerry ID exterior the OS which are reaching end-of-life. BlackBerry says customers ought to transfer any information to different gadgets and platforms, calling their service suppliers the place obligatory.

In one other period, the BlackBerry was a mainstay in cell computing earlier than smartphones subsumed its features. Even in that promote it couldn’t survive the likes of Apple and Samsung. Finish-of-life for BlackBerry’s inside software program has been a very long time coming.

In 2016 BlackBerry stopped constructing its personal telephones to focus solely on software program, launching the final cellphone designed in-house in 2017. In 2020, TCL additionally stopped manufacturing BlackBerry telephones. BlackBerry has been providing Android telephones ever since.