Am I right to be annoyed?

[annoyedinipswich]

I am a part of a professional group, a specialist committee, which is quite active at present as it is fairly newly set up. At least I think it is.

Thing is, when the group was set up, some of the committee decided they would communicate through whatsapp. I can't get it on my phone and am not in the position to upgrade to one that can just now.

I told them from the very beginning that this wouldn't work for me but the response was " aw that's too bad, you should get a new phone".
So, I am left not only in the dark but also looking like I am not pulling my weight (as I have no clue what the tasks etc are).

I know I am the only one but AIBU in thinking that this is a little unfair (or am I being difficult)?

You can get WhatsApp on your phone so yes I think you are being difficult.

What error message are you actually getting?

A colleague of mine is in the same boat. I tried to install WhatsApp for her while we're all WFH so we can keep in social contact (not for work) and the most recent version of the app was not supported on her phone. We switched to Facebook messenger instead and set it up for her on her laptop.

I personally hate Whatsapp/messaging apps for work within my teams as it's very hard to keep track of individual tasks and you often come back to hundreds of messages. We've missed key points and deadlines before so we changed to using an online task manager called Meister Task (it's brilliant). A simpler alternative would be a FB group where individual discussion points/tasks can be posted and directly responded to.

I don't think YABU at all. In fact, they are actively choosing to leave you out of all communication. I would make a point of saying again that Whatsapp doesn't work for you and unless they can supply you a phone you would like to explore other communication options - be forearmed with a few alternative options. If they say no you need to decide whether you stay in the group with no comms (and don't feel guilty because you've been very clear) or leave the group.

It's a known bug. There were plenty of articles a couple of months back about the fact that some Android phones were going to be unable to install WhatsApp in future because their version of the operating system was no longer supported due to security issues, if memory serves.

Some of the phones are old enough that they simply cannot update the OS to a later version of Android that is more compatible with WhatsApp. They may function fine for making calls and texting and stuff like Facebook, but not work with other apps. I think it's utterly shocking that people are judging OP for not being able to afford a new phone for purely this purpose, or questioning the truth of what they're saying.

But the OP has said they have never (not just recently) been able to install WhatsApp. People are quite rightly questioning how this is the case, now it’s been confirmed OP is not using an old school Nokia brick.