diff --git a/__tests__/versionCheck.test.js b/__tests__/versionCheck.test.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..1bafe957568
--- /dev/null
+++ b/__tests__/versionCheck.test.js
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+const {
+  checkVersion,
+} = require('../src/reanimated2/platform-specific/checkVersion');
+const { version: packageVersion } = require('../package.json');
+
+describe('desc', () => {
+  beforeAll(() => {
+    global._REANIMATED_VERSION_CPP = packageVersion;
+    jest.spyOn(console, 'error');
+  });
+
+  afterAll(() => {
+    delete global._REANIMATED_VERSION_CPP;
+    console.error.mockRestore();
+  });
+
+  it('checks version successfully', () => {
+    checkVersion();
+    expect(console.error).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+});
diff --git a/src/reanimated2/NativeReanimated/NativeReanimated.ts b/src/reanimated2/NativeReanimated/NativeReanimated.ts
index 6916460baa8..faf1403f75c 100644
--- a/src/reanimated2/NativeReanimated/NativeReanimated.ts
+++ b/src/reanimated2/NativeReanimated/NativeReanimated.ts
@@ -23,6 +23,15 @@ export class NativeReanimated {
     this.InnerNativeModule = global.__reanimatedModuleProxy;
     this.native = native;
     if (native) {
+      if (this.InnerNativeModule === undefined) {
+        console.error(
+          `[Reanimated] The native part of Reanimated doesn't seem to be initialized. This could be caused by\n\
+  - not rebuilding the app after installing or upgrading Reanimated\n\
+  - trying to run Reanimated on an unsupported platform\n\
+  - running in a brownfield app without manually initializing the native library`
+        );
+        return;
+      }
       checkVersion();
     }
   }
diff --git a/src/reanimated2/platform-specific/checkVersion.ts b/src/reanimated2/platform-specific/checkVersion.ts
index 1b64bb62d62..45d6db73bc6 100644
--- a/src/reanimated2/platform-specific/checkVersion.ts
+++ b/src/reanimated2/platform-specific/checkVersion.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,9 @@
-import { version as jsVersion } from '../../../package.json';
+/**
+ * We hardcode the version of Reanimated here in order to compare it
+ * with the version used to build the native part of the library in runtime.
+ * Remember to keep this in sync with the version declared in `package.json`
+ */
+const jsVersion = '3.0.0-rc.10';
 
 /**
  * Checks that native and js versions of reanimated match.