PayPal, the leading service provider for online money transfer, will be discontinuing its apps on three major platforms that include Windows Phone, Amazon, and BlackBerry.
Those still using the flagship app on Windows Phone, any BlackBerry OS or a Fire OS device will no longer be able to use the app as from June 30, 2016. With this move, PayPal will now be supported on only two major mobile platforms – Android and iOS.
Just recently, WhatsApp, the most popular messaging app in the world announced that it will be ending support for BlackBerry OS. As a result, this announcement by PayPal shouldn’t come as a surprise to those still using this platform. In addition, Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform has also been going facing the same problems of apps being discontinued. It is, however, strange to see an application being discontinued as far as Amazon’s Fire OS is concerned. Up until now, there is no detailed explanation that has come from PayPal regarding the matter, however, the company promises that this move will enable them to give the best apps to the remaining two platforms.
According to the VP of Consumer Product at PayPal, Joanna Lambert, this decision was not an easy one. However, “we believe that it is the right choice in ensuring that we invest all our resources in creating the best experiences for our [Android and iOS] customers,” Lambert said.
The comforting side of the story is that Amazon, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry users who will be left without a native app will still be able to access the company’s services via the official mobile website. BlackBerry users also have the option of going through BBM in order to make peer-to-peer payments using PayPal. As for those using Windows Phone, they can add a PayPal add-on that enables them to send money to friends right from their Outlook.com app.
If you still use any of these three platforms and would like to keep using the PayPal mobile app, you may have little to do to but move to either iOS or Android. Otherwise, you may have to stick to using the above-mentioned methods with respect to Windows Phone and BlackBerry.