This happened to me and it turned out someone had performed a sim swap on my number and tried to get into my whatsapp. Luckily I had 2fa on the account.
I've uninstalled and reinstalled, rebooted and updated - still the same. I get the small circle with a woman's face for a second or so and then it just goes back to my main screen. Xiaomi Redmi 8 on Android 10.