It is vital to manage your expectations. Using an APK from 2023 means you are on a frozen client.

Use this guide as a temporary solution while you back up your data and plan to upgrade your device or switch to WhatsApp Business (which may have different cutoff dates).

As of late 2023, WhatsApp officially dropped support for Android versions older than 5.0. This means you can no longer download the latest version from the Google Play Store on a device running Android 4.4.2. To use WhatsApp, you must rely on an file from a third-party archive. Recommended Version for Android 4.4.2

Since you cannot use the Play Store, you must use reputable third-party repositories to avoid malware: