UPDATE 25/10 11:30am BST: WhatsApp is back up and running now for most people after a global outage.
The Meta-owned messaging service went down early this morning, with tens of thousands of ‘down’ reports listed on Down Detector. WhatsApp responded with a generic message claiming that it was “working to restore WhatsApp for everyone as quickly as possible.”
It appears to have achieved just that, with widespread reports that the service is now working again. WhatsApp has issued the following statement confirming the fix: “We know people had trouble sending messages on WhatsApp today. We have fixed the issue and apologise for any inconvenience”.
Barring any further disruption, it seems all that remains is to establish the cause of this widespread outage for one of the most popular messaging services in the world. WhatsApp itself hasn’t commented on the source of the problem. We’ll update this piece as and when we learn more.
Original report continues below…
WhatsApp is down for many users across the world.
Thousands of WhatsApp users are reporting receiving “connecting” messages when attempting to use the Meta-owned messaging app, and of being unable to send or receive messages.
At around 9am this morning, Down Detector was reporting a peak of more than 60,000 down status reports. Anecdotally, WhatsApp messages still weren’t sending for me as of 09:55 this morning.
Lest you think this is merely an issue with the WhatsApp mobile app, it’s worth pointing out that the WhatsApp web app is failing to connect to the WhatsApp servers.
WhatsApp itself has responded to the outage with the following generic message: “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.”
There’s no update as yet on the official WhatsApp Twitter page.
This isn’t the first time in recent years that the Facebook-affiliated messaging service has experience troublesome outages. Around this time last year Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram experienced a lengthy outage that lasted some seven hours.
At the time, Facebook (this was before the Meta name change) claimed that the issue was due to a configuration change to its routers.
We’ll keep you updated when we hear any more about this ongoing issue.
This is a developing story…
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
