Millions of WhatsApp Users Experiencing Outage, Frustration Mounts
WhatsApp, a widely used messaging app, experienced a significant outage on Thursday, July 20. Numerous reports indicated that there were approximately 177,000 issues in the UK, 43,000 in the US, and around 16,000 in India. Users encountered difficulties with the app, as well as its desktop and web interfaces. The problems were determined to be server-related, with most complaints revolving around the inability to send messages. WhatsApp promptly acknowledged and resolved the issue within a few hours.
The problem appears to be affecting several regions, including the UK, India and the US. According to online outage tracking platform Downdetector.com, the outage was first reported at around 1:25 PM IST (3:55 PM ET) and peaked at 1:55 PM IST (4:25 PM ET). The issue was finally resolved at 4:00 AM IST (6:30 PM ET).
WhatsApp crashes for thousands of users
According to reports, 61 percent of users complained about problems with sending messages, while 35 percent of users found the app not working properly. Another 4 percent reported outages in online clients such as the desktop version and the web version.
WhatsApp’s official Twitter handle was quick to acknowledge the issue when it tweeted, “We are working quickly to resolve WhatsApp connection issues and will update you here as soon as possible”. Once the problem was fixed, it was updated with “and we’re back, happy chatting!”.