WhatsApp ranked as the most used mobile messenger app in the world, suffered a major outage that affected users across the world. During this period some users could completely not message via the platform. Others could but did so intermittently. This could mean the outage was not a total blackout and may not have been global.
The Meta-owned platform confirmed the incident on its X handle posting, “We know some people are experiencing issues right now, we’re working on getting things back to 100% for everyone as quickly as possible,”
Some users who use the platform via its web application found it hard to log in. The web app displayed a message suggesting poor internet on the user’s side. However, this was not the case.
WhatsApp was not the only service affected. Meta’s status page detailed disruptions to key business services, including its Ads Manager, Messenger Platform, WhatsApp Business API and others. Users of Facebook, Instagram and Threads reported issues trying to view recent posts or create new posts.
Data shows that WhatsApp has 2 billion active users worldwide. Moreover, about 100 billion messages are sent each day on the platform. This means any disruption inconveniences a large portion of the world’s population.
Based on WhatsApp’s post, it appears the latest service outage lasted for about four hours. Once things were back to normal, WhatsApp posted “And we’re back. Happy chatting!”
It’s the second time in just about a month that Meta-owned apps have suffered outages and access problems. The outage to Meta platforms in early March lasted for about 2 hours. In that incident, some users on Facebook were logged out. Others on Instagram and Threads were met with error messages as they tried to access the apps.
Outage to Apple Services
Apple’s online services also suffered an outage last night that lasted an hour. Users found it hard to access the App Store, Apple TV, and Apple Music during the period. The system status page for Apple’s online service listed disruptions to online services including Arcade, Audiobooks, Books, Podcasts, and Fitness Plus. Even its new Apple Sports app was affected.
Apple Support did not issue any statement on the cause of the disruption. However, the company directed consumers to check the status page for more information.
In what was a bad day for tech, the Xbox store was also down momentarily.
