BBC iplayer
No more EastEnders on your Windows Phone Carl Court/ Getty Images

It's not a great time to be a Windows Phone user. BBC has just announced that its BBC iPlayer app will no longer be compatible with Microsoft's devices from April 2017, following in a line of app providers which have pulled support for the ailing mobile operating system.

BBC said it was retiring the on-demand TV app because it was no longer cost-effective for it to have a version specifically designed for Windows mobile devices. Given that Windows Phone currently has a less than 1% share in the global smartphone market, it's no mystery as to why.

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Users with smartphones running Windows 10 Mobile will still be able to access BBC iPlayer via Microsoft's Edge browser. This means that any users clinging to Windows 8.1 who watch content on BBC iPlayer and want to continue doing so should check if their device is eligible for an update to the latest software version.

The Windows 10 Mobile Upgrade Advisor app can check whether your device can be updated. Windows 8.1 users who don't or otherwise can't upgrade will still be able to access iPlayer through the Edge browser, but will only be able to access radio programmes.

The BBC said: "When the BBC iPlayer app was originally created it was not technically possible to playback BBC programmes via the browser. As it's now possible to playback via the browser it's no longer cost-effective for the BBC to maintain a BBC iPlayer app for Windows mobile devices.

"By using the browser version of BBC iPlayer, Windows phone users will get the benefits of the web version as it evolves."

PayPal killed app support for Windows Phone handsets on 30 June 2016, saying it no longer made commercial sense to maintain it. WhatsApp ended support for older mobile operating systems including Windows 7.1 at the end of last year.