WhatsApp users in many countries experienced problems in making calls and sending messages. The messaging platform started to come back online after resolving the issue. On Tuesday at noon, the company fixed the problem after users around the world reported issues. The Downdetector (an outage reporting website) reported problems with the app in the United Kingdom, affecting at least 68,000 users.
More than 19,000 users in Singapore and at least 15,000 users in South Africa reported WhatsApp-related issues. A spokesperson for Meta Platform (WhatsApp’s parent company) issued a statement. He said people experienced trouble today sending messages on WhatsApp. The company has now fixed the issue and made an apology for the sudden inconvenience.
WhatsApp Experienced a 5-Hour Outage in 2021
However, the company didn’t mention the actual reason behind the outage incident. Less critical issues targeted other services over the internet while the app was down, such as Facebook Messenger and Instagram. Keep in mind that WhatsApp has now been considered a major means of communication for businesses and households.
Moreover, an hour-long outage massively hit WhatsApp in October 2021. The outage hit trading and assets from cryptocurrencies to oil, while most traders moved to substitute platforms such as Telegram. An adviser at the Slovakia-based cybersecurity firm ESET, Jake Moore, issued a statement. He said the incident highlights the significance of wide hosting companies directing data across the internet.
Many Businesses Shifted to Alternate Communication Channels
It also includes individuals and companies on single points of communication. Moore added the result of this downturn could surely significantly impact multiple areas. However, there is a supposed financial hit along with other recent striking times when the internet went down. The recent outage will teach many to get other types of communication to sustain uninterrupted connectivity.
Meanwhile, around a two-hour outage is considerable for Meta. But the recent interruption last short compared to the 5-hour issue the company experienced last year. Keep in mind that a mistaken configuration of Facebook’s network engineers generated the error at that time. The social network efficiently informed the global internet that its service doesn’t have any online servers.
The Sustainability of Distributed Systems is Essential
However, the update was quickly inverted but the issue took many hours to completely find out across the distributed systems. It is noteworthy that distributed systems traditionally sustain the internet together. The latest WhatsApp outage amid the festive season in India which maintains the largest user count market.
It is important that people use WhatsApp social platform, more than usual to present the season’s respect. Some people suggest the burden of messages forwarded over Diwali is the major reason behind the outage. However, it was unexpected in past years but the scope of the Indian market has generated problems for the app.
The Status Feature of WhatsApp
The famous practice of sending good morning messages to relatives and friends supposedly caused the issue. It also led to service interruption until the company presented a “status” feature. This feature enabled users to simultaneously share messages with their entire followers. However, the shares of Meta dropped 0.7% to $128.85 in pre-market trading subsequent to the disruption.
The social platform didn’t publish any fresh updates but users in Asia and the UK started experiencing normal operations. Moreover, Twitter experienced #whatsappdown trending on the platform. There were also at least 142,000 tweets and hundreds of memes on the internet. Competitor apps such as Telegram, Instagram, and Snap experienced a temporary increase in user numbers after the outage.
