KakaoTalk has announced its plans to end support for its Windows Phone application, rendering the app unusable come December.
KakaoTalk, a dominant instant messenger in South Korea, will be unavailable from the Windows Store from December 5, 2016. While past conversations will be available after the cutoff date, the application will be unable to connect to the service.
It's with heavy hearts we announce that we will be officially ending support for KakaoTalk for Windows Phone as of December 5, 2016.Please note that you will not be able to send or receive messages on KakaoTalk but still be able to read past messages in your chatrooms.We suggest you keep your app installed if you wish to keep chats. You will not be unregistered from KakaoTalk even if we end the support for KakaoTalk on Windows Phone.
Although the application is widely used in its country of origin, KakaoTalk is rarely seen outside of Asia. With Windows 10 Mobile having limited market share in the country, it doesn't come as a huge surprise that the service will be discontinued for the platform. While other popular messengers in the region such as Line and WeChat still support Windows 10 Mobile devices, it's clear that KakaoTalk users will have to move elsewhere to continue using the service.
Update: It appears that some users are being informed that support will be ending on December 15, while the announcement states December 5. We've reached out to Kakao for clarification and will update this post at a later date.
In the meantime, the KakaoTalk application is still available for download via the link below.
Download KakaoTalk from the Store
