WhatsApp application
Given Ruvik | Reuters
WhatsApp is a messaging app owned by Facebook parent MetaA global outage hit Tuesday.
The problems were first detected at 3:17 a.m. ET, according to Downdetector.com, which tracks outages across Internet services.
Users reported problems sending and receiving messages. Normal service on WhatsApp was restored around 5 a.m. ET.
WhatsApp Web, the web browser version of the messaging service that previously did not load, also worked when tested by CNBC.
Meta confirmed that there were problems with WhatsApp initially.
“We know some people are currently having trouble sending messages, and we’re working to restore WhatsApp for everyone as soon as possible,” a Meta spokesperson told CNBC.
With around 2 billion users, WhatsApp is especially popular in countries like India and Brazil.
Users around the world, from the UK to India and Turkey, reported outages on Tuesday.
This isn’t the first stumble for the Meta-owned platform this year. In August, Facebook users reported a problem Initially their feed was spammed with other people’s messages created on popular pages.
Other tech companies also faced technical issues this year. In August, Google’s search engine is temporarily down. And in July, Twitter suffered malfunction.