WhatsApp ‘obsolete error’: Xiaomi admits fault, says issue impacted their phones

WhatsApp ‘obsolete’ error is a problem many users reported on Twitter on January 13, and some had also complained that they were unable to use the app or update it. Now, Xiaomi has admitted that the problem lay at its doorstep. Techook.com first reported about Xiaomi’s statement on the issue.

So for those who are unaware, on January 13 users had complained that they were unable to use WhatsApp in India. The error that appeared said, “This version of WhatsApp became obsolete on 13 Jan 2018. Please go to the Google Play Store to download the latest version.” But users also complained that they were unable to update the app from Google Play Store. According to the report on Techook, the issue impacted mostly Xiaomi phones and fans had also taken to the Mi.com forum to complain about the same.

Xiaomi’s statement confirms that the fault lay with a version of the app launched from its Mi App Store. In a statement, which was also shared with indianexpress.com, Xiaomi 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.”

WhatsApp had at the time said in a statement, “On background, this is an issue that’s being fixed. It was a problem with how our app is distributed, which is not under our control.” As we had pointed out at the time, users could fix the problem by downloading the WhatsApp application straight from the official website, since Google Play Store was not allowing an update.

For this users will have to “Allow installation of apps from unknown sources” in the settings on the phone. Then they can go and install the WhatsApp Android file straight from the official website. This will ensure the latest version of the app gets installed on the phone without any need for reinstall.

Once again, the lesson in all of this is to install apps directly from the Google Play Store, rather than other third-party stores. This ensures that one has the latest version of the app thanks to the Google Play Store. This also ensures ensure best security protection and fights against malware, etc, which can be a problem on third-party app stores.