Pour one out — BlackBerry smartphones no longer work as of today
What you need to know
BlackBerry 7.1 and earlier devices stopped working today.
The move was first announced in September of 2020.
Devices can no longer make calls, connect to WiFi, and more.
Today is the day that BlackBerry smartphones around the world are even more dead than they already were.
Mark the date. Today, January 4, 2022 — that’s the date when BlackBerry smartphones running BlackBerry OS officially became end of life (EOL) products and stopped working. And stopped working in a pretty final way, too. BlackBerry owners can no longer makes calles, send messages, or even use them for 911 calls as of right now.
The move was announced in September of 2020 but the two-year timescale has now come to an end and BlackBerry services are no more. That means that BlackBerry devices the world over are now deader than ever. And they were already pretty dead.
As a reminder, the legacy services for BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier, BlackBerry 10 software, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 and earlier versions, will no longer be available after January 4, 2022. As of this date, devices running these legacy services and software through either carrier or Wi-Fi connections will no longer reliably function, including for data, phone calls, SMS and 9-1-1 functionality.
If by some miracle you’re reading this with a BlackBerry in hand, you can learn about what’s going down over on the BlackBerry website. But suffice it to say, the best iPhone feature right now is that it works — maybe it’s time you treated yourself to that shiny new iPhone 13 you’ve been lusting after?
Today marks another nail in the coffin for a company that essentially owned the smartphone business back in the day — something that started to change on the day the very first iPhone was announced.
