Downdetector, a website that tracks online outages across the globe, has shown a sharp spike in the number of users reporting WhatsApp’s outage.
WhatsApp faced its worst outage ever as the instant messaging platform was down for almost a couple of hours. The glitch caused a number of users reporting issues with sending and receiving texts on the app. Downdetector, a website that tracks online outages across the globe, had shown a sharp spike in the number of users reporting WhatsApp’s outage.
Downdetector is reported a major spike with over 30,000 reports online. WhatsApp users are complaining that their messages are not getting delivered. Even when the messages were delivered, the app failed to highlight the delivery status. On the Downdetector live outage map, most metro cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Lucknow seemed to be the hotspots. The WhatsApp outage is the longest disruption the platform has ever faced.
The outage had a cascading effect on other services offered by the instant messaging platform. Video calls and voice calls had completely stopped working. Even Status updates feature was not letting users share new posts. However, you can still access pre-loaded media on the Status feature.
Meta has responded to Business Today's queries on WhatsApp outage. A Meta company spokesperson said, "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."
Users are even complaining about issues with the calling feature on WhatsApp. The app is not going past the 'calling' phase to the ringing phase. The WhatsApp Status feature is also at a impasse as users are not able to post their images on the instant messaging application.
The outage also seems to be affecting other prominent markets for WhatsApp, including the UK. Over 66,000 reports have been confirmed on the downdetector platform.
WhatsApp has undergone a similar outage last year in October. WhatsApp users are also turning to Twitter to report the outage. Considering the wide reach of the outage, this could be one of the worst episodes for the instant messaging application has ever faced. India is WhatsApp's biggest market in the world and a lot of business rely on the messaging service heavily. The outage could lead to financial loses for both big and small businesses.
WhatsApp Pay, another feature that made its debut in India is witnessing issues with transactions. The users are advised to refrain from making transactions during the outage.