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WhatsApp Users Are Reporting Outages Worldwide (metro.co.uk)

Posted by BeauHD on from the commence-panic dept.

sombragris writes: WhatsApp, a proprietary instant messaging platform owned by Facebook and used by millions of users, is currently down according to user reports from various parts of the world. There's no official word yet on the cause but I'm among the many affected by the outages. UPDATE 5/3/17: "Earlier today, WhatsApp users in all parts of the world were unable to access WhatsApp for a few hours. We have now fixed the issue and apologize for the inconvenience," WhatsApp said in an email late Wednesday afternoon.

44 comments

  1. I call for a moment of silence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    oh, no need.

    1. Re:I call for a moment of silence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      R.I.P: Nothing of Value.

    2. Re:I call for a moment of silence by rodrigoandrade · · Score: 3, Insightful

      WhatsApp is valuable to those who live in countries where cell phone carriers charge for SMS text messages.

    3. Re:I call for a moment of silence by mrbester · · Score: 0

      Then they can use something else. I'm sure they've all got other social media accounts, and that they are on them right now spamming with messages about WhatsApp being down. My nose bleeds in sympathy for them.

      --
      "Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
    4. Re:I call for a moment of silence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So only third world shitholes?

    5. Re:I call for a moment of silence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You got it.

    6. Re:I call for a moment of silence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So then I restate my original statement: Nothing of value was lost.

    7. Re:I call for a moment of silence by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      Then they can use something else.

      Sure. An entire country, please switch over to Facebook or something else quickly. Share all you contacts among each other so you can send your messages. Quick, whatsapp is down!

      Not gonna happen. Ever.

    8. Re:I call for a moment of silence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How is Facebook working out for you? Enjoying the spying?

  2. I feel a great disturbance in the force ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... it is as though millions of useless idiots who had nothing worthwhile to say were silenced,
    and no one intelligent cared, except maybe their "leader" who is working on entering politics.

  3. I hate that stupid name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I hate all brands/names/artists who copy something famous in order to boost themselves.

    Whassup? (also known as Wazzup) was a commercial campaign for Anheuser-Busch Budweiser beer from 1999 to 2002. The first spot aired during Monday Night Football, December 20, 1999. The ad campaign was run worldwide and became a pop culture catchphrase.

    1. Re:I hate that stupid name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ^ Micropeen man!

    2. Re:I hate that stupid name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "What's up" (as in Bugs Bunny's "What's up, doc?" line) has been around for a very, very long time.

  4. In other news by dysmal · · Score: 1

    Productivity mysteriously increased at a lot of companies today.

    1. Re:In other news by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      You mean decreased. When the message doesn't get through I actually have to get up and go talk to the person I'm sending a message to.

  5. Probably the Google Docs exploits by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    Next time don't open attached documents even if they are from people you know.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  6. Thanks for that. by AbRASiON · · Score: 1

    Slashot on top of basically breaking news. A rare moment.
    Explains several issues for me today.

    1. Re:Thanks for that. by Vegan+Cyclist · · Score: 1

      Nah - if you follow the link, it's actually a 'breaking story' about the last time it was down. We'll hear about the current outage in a week or two.

  7. NSA spying tool is taking a while to install by Kid+CUDA · · Score: 1

    I guess the NSA spying tool they tried to install on their servers took a bit longer to setup than they planned.

    1. Re:NSA spying tool is taking a while to install by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Germany is going for its ANISKI project to study non standardized communication.
      Both links are in German but translation services should help.
      http://www.zeit.de/digital/dat...
      https://netzpolitik.org/2016/p...

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    2. Re:NSA spying tool is taking a while to install by lucm · · Score: 1

      Germany is going for its ANISKI project to study non standardized communication.

      They can't make diesel engines without cheating, I'm not worried about their encryption breaking skills.

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    3. Re:NSA spying tool is taking a while to install by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      The budget to break US brand encryption is really low in Germany or the NSA is spending a lot more for its contractors every year.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  8. I use it by chispito · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Whatsapp is a relatively lean and unencumbered messaging app compared to others I've tried, and way more reliable than SMS--even with this apparent outage.

    --
    The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
    1. Re:I use it by Guybrush_T · · Score: 3, Insightful

      +1.

      It works well internationally. Signal is the other alternative. In all cases, such apps are quite needed : MMS picture quality is crap, international texting/MMS costs a lot in many countries .. or sometimes doesn't even work.

    2. Re:I use it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Email is better and not tied to one corporation.

    3. Re:I use it by Desler · · Score: 1

      But is mostly sent in plain text and easily snooped.

    4. Re:I use it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      An arguably leaner and meaner relatively unencumbered messaging app: Telegram Messenger

    5. Re:I use it by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Email is better

      By what metric?

      Instant?: No
      Encrypted?: No
      Message gets to end user instantly without changing hands a thousand times?: No
      Message guaranteed to get to target and not null routed, reported as spam?: No
      Delivery confirmation?: No
      Able to support video calls?: No
      Able to support audio calls?: No
      Able to send pictures and attachments knowing exactly what the limits are and not being randomly rejected?: No
      Free of spam?: No

      Actually the not being tied to a corporation thing is about the only thing email has going for it. I can't think of a single upside to email otherwise.

  9. god bless it by zlives · · Score: 1

    those 3000 new hires are for the video feed, not to watch all whatsapp users.

  10. Service appears to be restored now. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    WhatsApp seems to be just back on line.

    1. Re:Service appears to be restored now. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh wait...now it's down again.

    2. Re:Service appears to be restored now. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now it's up! Yay!

  11. More LUDDITE lies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ONLY apps can app apps, so it's really LUDDITE messaging that's broken, not apply Apps app!

    Apps!

  12. If it is not by Kernel+Kurtz · · Score: 1

    completely peer-to-peer and relies on centralized services it is not much use.

    1. Re:If it is not by lucm · · Score: 2

      it is not much use.

      There's 30 billion messages sent daily on Whatsapp. I don't know what you consider of "much use".

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    2. Re:If it is not by Geeky · · Score: 2

      People outside of the geek bubble don't care about peer to peer. Mostly they don't care about encryption either (although WhatsApp does have end to end encryption). They care about what their friends use. Whatsapp has a critical mass. I use it because of the people I want to talk to, not because of its technical qualities.

      And at least it's not Facebook Messenger... although it still surprises me that FB haven't eliminated it to have a single messaging platform to support, given that they own WhatsApp.

      I'm also not sure how you'd manage to get peer to peer working on mobile - what with battery considerations and lack of permanent connectivity.

      --
      Sigs are so 1990s. No way would I be seen dead with one.
    3. Re:If it is not by Kernel+Kurtz · · Score: 1

      There's 30 billion messages sent daily on Whatsapp.

      Except when their servers are down apparently.

      Which is fine so long as you don't use it for anything important.

  13. people who use messaging apps... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    People who use messaging apps don't have jobs! We're talking about Millennials, for Christ's sake.

  14. stupid solutions by DrYak · · Score: 1

    WhatsApp is valuable

    Which actually doesn't as much show that WhatsApp has some value (as opposed to any other messaging system),
    but shows how bad it is to rely on a single centralized service.

    (as opposed to things which are a bit more distributed : like e-mail, like XMPP chat server with federation switched on, ...)

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
    1. Re:stupid solutions by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      The value in a messaging system is in the users not the system.

      Tell you what: Right now where I live I can send anyone a whatsapp message, even someone who's number I just read off a business card, and with certainty I know it will work.

      I actually did just that yesterday to my tax accountant because their email server was rejecting my email as spam.

      Can you say the same thing for {insert unused and generally unknown service here}?

  15. Re:Good by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 1

    WhatsApp Users Are Reporting Outages Worldwide

    And there was much rejoicing

    --

    Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

  16. Short term memory by DrYak · · Score: 1

    The value in a messaging system is in the users not the system.

    A.k.a. "Network effect".
    As /. is nearly entirely composed of geeks, who by definition have weird fetishes regarding technology (and not only... ahem...)
    we are all constantly exposed to this whenever we try to persuade the vanilla people around us to try some new tech.

    Tell you what: Right now where I live I can send anyone a whatsapp message, even someone who's number I just read off a business card,

    The keyword is "Right now".
    A couple of years ago it used to be some other system (Apple's iPhone-only iMessage).
    then Facebook Messenger (still have some contact stuck on this one),
    now it's WhatsApp,
    next year it's going to be SnapChat (*)
    And who knows what awaits us beyond.

    ---

    (*) : As a hobby, I am a ski instructor at my university's ski camps.
    I've noticed that among first-year student (~19 y.o.), very have WhatsApp installed and most of them spend their time on SnapChat.

    i.e.: unlike you, I'm already in the situation where I CANNOT rely on sending a WhatsApp message to any random mobile number I happen to stumble upon.
    Though (as usual with network effect) this tend to be generational so - if I know the age group of my target - I can have a vague idea on which network I have the most chance of finding them.

    ---

    NOTE that desktop chat went through the exact same kind of madness. ICQ, AIM, Y!M, MSN, Skype, Facebook chat, Google chat/hangouts, WebEx a bunch of more modern WebRTC meeting platforms, Rocket Chat, Slack, etc.
    At least during some time XMPP brought a relative hope to this madness (even Facebook used to have a XMPP gateway at some point in time), specially since servers started implementing federation (e.g.: you could talk between Google chat and Jabber.org users. Until Google decided "It's too much risk of SPAM" and disabled federation about the same time they introduced hangouts).

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  17. For the First Time in Forever by n329619 · · Score: 1

    People walked outside to say "What's up" to other people.