WhatsApp has been actively rolling out new updates to all the platforms- Android, iOS and Windows Phone. And for WhatsApp Beta users, there will be at least one update every day, and there are some days when WhatsApp rolled out two new beta updates on a single day. Several users on the latest WhatsApp Beta Android version are reporting that the application is crashing and now allowing them to use. And the sad part is the update is popping a crash message on the home screen, which is not even allowing users to use the smartphone. But don't be worried there's a simple fix for this issue.
Firstly, we noticed that the application is crashing on smartphones running Android 7.0 Nougat operating system and that too on third-party OEM skins (mostly). But we noticed the issue on our Moto X4 unit running Android 7.1.2 Nougat close to the stock version.
So, if you're one among the users facing this issue, the fix is to just download the latest version of WhatsApp by heading over to Whatsapp.com/android and install it manually. Sadly, this is the only way to fix this issue as clearing cache or force stopping the application won't solve the issue.
Doing this will erase some of the chats you had since the last backup. For example, WhatsApp automatically backs up your chats and data every day at 2 AM, so you will lose the chats after that time which are not backed up. And sadly, you can't backup the chats now as the application will be force closing while opening.
There's no update from WhatsApp on the issue, but it seems like a lot of users are facing the same issue. Let us know in the comments below whether you're facing the issue or not.