Instant-messaging app, WhatsApp is experiencing a massive outage at the moment, and users should not expect any messages to be sent or received.
This morning, I noticed at exactly 8:33 WAT at the attempt to reply another user on the app. After refreshing my Internet data severally, and made another attempt (plus I successfully searched for a phrase on Google Chrome), I observed the issue was with the Meta-owned app.
“The service started experiencing issues at around 3AM ET, with users greeted with a “connecting” message,” The Verge reports.
Some users who tried to use the web app met the error message, “Make sure your computer has an active internet connection”.
The current outage appears to be affecting users all across the world, as Downdetector has received over 60,000 reports of problems with the service.
A Meta spokesperson Joshua Breckman also confirmed this to The Verge, “We’re aware that some people are currently having trouble sending messages and we’re working to restore WhatsApp for everyone as quickly as possible.”
In fact, WhatsApp’s calling feature has been the subject of user complaints as well. The app will not advance from the calling to the ringing stage.
In October last year, the Instant-messaging app also had an outage. Could this be a coincidence? Although, this problem seems to have impacted only WhatsApp, and not other Meta owned platforms such as Instagram and Facebook.
As at the time of this writing, #WhatsAppdown is currently trending. Those affected by the WhatsApp outage are taking to Twitter to share their stories.
This could be one of the worst incidents for WhatsApp given the widespread nature of the outage.
New Update
The outage happened to have taken place for about two hours. Again, at roughly 8 AM WAT today, users noticed they were unable to send nor receive message on the app. Though, it affected many users all over the world, it was eventually fixed at roughly 10 AM WAT same Tuesday. The cause of the problem is, however, still strange.
