As apps grow, they add features and innovations which users quickly take for granted, for example, on WhatsApp sending video files from your phone to another user.
On Sunday, April 28, users started complaining on Reddit that they were unable to send video files on Android phones. As spotted by Damien Wilde reporting for 9to5Google, the problem rests with on-device video files and is restricted to Android phones only.
Wilde looked into the issue and found the same thing happening when testing the feature. Instead of all happening smoothly, a message popped up, reading, “Can’t send this video. Choose a different video and try again.” Now, leaving aside the slightly peremptory tone in the message, this is annoying and can leave the user convinced that there’s something wrong with their video file when it turns out to be a system bug.
Wilde kept trying and reported this: “Annoyingly, this persists and the message will only appear after attempting to process the video file within WhatsApp. Photos and other filetypes don’t seem to struggle.”
While the investigations seemed to suggest that it wasn’t affecting all Android phones—the testing was done on a range of devices including Galaxy S series handsets—that’s scant comfort if it’s happening to you.
Wilde drilled down into exactly how the problem manifested and said this: “From our testing, it seems that videos shot or downloaded locally to your Android device will encounter an issue during the upload process within WhatsApp messenger.”
That could be a substantial portion of the video files you send, so that’s annoying.
There are more details, including that MOV video files which were shot on an iPhone and then received from other contacts within WhatsApp can be forwarded or sent on without hiccups. However, Wilde goes on, “That said, even some files we have downloaded from the Instagram app on Android directly to device storage cannot be sent to contacts within WhatsApp.”
The testing units were running the latest Android update, v2.24.9.34, but other reports suggested that the most recent WhatsApp beta update could also be affected.
Is there a solution? Well, for sure WhatsApp will be trying to sort this out pronto, so keeping your app up-to-date is good advice as always. But if you really can’t wait for it to be fixed, then the next-best option is to downgrade the version of WhatsApp you’re using to the older version which is 2.24.8.85. The APK for this version is here, though since this requires manually downloading and installing, it’s not quite faff-free.
As users are still complaining, it looks like it's not fixed yet, but I’ll report back when something changes.