Since there's plenty of speculation among everyone trying to mince words spread through a number of articles, I'd just like to clear up exactly what is going to happen with the BlackBerry 10 client*:
The December 31, 2017 date has not changed. It is for real this time. However, since I know that many of you will "run to town" on the forums if the app doesn't die in your face at the stroke of midnight, here's how things are actually going to happen (at least on BlackBerry 10):
Once the date passes Dec 31 2017, the app will go into "deprecation" mode. It will still continue to function for a short grace period, but some behaviors will change. Most importantly, you will no longer be able to re-register your account with the app. That means if you delete and reinstall it (or install it on a different phone), it will no longer allow you to verify your phone number and complete the setup process.
After the grace period, which is approximately two weeks after the published date, the app will go into "expired" mode. At this point it will stop functioning as a usable WhatsApp client, and thus will no longer connect to our servers. (Around this same time, our servers will stop allowing the client to connect as well.) However, once it is expired, the BlackBerry 10 client app may still allow you to access your existing message content on your phone. This behavior should be similar to what was seen by everyone who forgot to update their app the last time our published expiration date had passed.
Note: If you want to try the "Export for Android" feature that's been mentioned in some other threads, please do it (or at least try to do it) before your app is cut off. Part of the initial setup process for this feature requires a connection to our servers.
(* The client being referred to here is the native "WhatsApp for BlackBerry 10" application. None of our language refers to the Android client, because it has never been an officially supported option. The Android client may continue to work past this date, but no effort has been or will be made to ensure compatibility. As such, it could break at any time. Therefore, to continue using WhatsApp, switching to a real Android phone is strongly recommended.)
12-27-17 11:22 AM