WhatsApp may prevent you from logging in if you have older iOS or Android versions

According to a new report, WhatsApp has added a new feature via a server-side update, which means you don't have to have a specific app version to get it. This is apparently rolling out to both Android and iOS.

The idea is that WhatsApp will prevent you from logging in until you update your phone’s operating system to a newer version. So if you have an outdated version of Android or iOS, you will see a screen like the ones shown in the image below.

It explains what you need to do before you can log into your WhatsApp account again. WhatsApp tells you to go to your phone's Settings and apply a system update first. After you do that, you can try logging into WhatsApp again and it should work.

The same screen also tells you how to check the current version of your phone's operating system, in case you're unsure. WhatsApp will not let you skip any of this, for security reasons. We assume the reason for this is to prevent people on older versions of Android and iOS, with active exploits in the wild, from logging into their WhatsApp accounts and possibly sending their contacts malware they may have installed on their phones.

After all, attackers are actively looking for known vulnerabilities in operating systems to make malware installation easier. WhatsApp can be end-to-end encrypted and all that, but if you receive a malware-ridden link from someone you trust, that won't be of much help. Anyway, it's unclear who WhatsApp plans on showing the new screen to - the company hasn't announced whether it's targeting specific older versions of Android and iOS, at least not yet. But if you see the screen shown above, you now know why.