WhatsApp is one of the most used instant messaging application. This is mainly due to the fact that, it is a cross-platform application and offers a lot of value-added services like voice calls, video calls, multimedia sharing, group chat, and not to forget the end-to-end encryption of these messages. On 13th January, several users, especially the ones with Xiaomi smartphones started noticing an error, which blocked the users from using instant-message with a message “This version of WhatsApp has become Obsolete on 13-Jan-2018” and asked the users to update the same using Google Play store.
When users tried to update the app from Google Play store, the app was up to date and they couldn’t do anything about this. Later on, a few users reported that backing up the messenger (by changing the date from 13th January to 12th January) and re-installing from WhatsApp website or Google Play store solved the issue. WhatsApp did issue a statement that they will look forward the issue for the further diagnosis.
Now we have come to know that Xiaomi’s own Mi App store is the one that has to blame. Xiaomi engineers accidentally uploaded a beta version of the APK on to the store (auto update option is enabled by default in Mi App store and the application was auto updated, which caused a lot of chaos). So, now the company has rectified the mistake and have updated the Mi App store to the latest version of the WhatsApp application, updating the same should resolve the issue. So, update the app using Mi App store or uninstall and reinstall the app from Google Play store, which should be able to resolve the issue.
Xiaomi spokesperson in a statement, said:
A few Xiaomi users reported an issue with WhatsApp on their smartphones. After a thorough investigation, we learned that a beta version of WhatsApp was pushed out on our Mi App Store a few days ago, which some users updated to. We have updated our App store listing with a newer version, approved by WhatsApp, which we encourage any users facing issues, to update to. We apologise for any inconvenience faced by our Mi Fans, and promise to be more vigilant going forward.
Vivek contributed to this post