Popular message service WhatsApp is experiencing a global outage, with local users and others from the UK and India reporting they’re unable to send or receive messages.
The DownDetector website reports that it has seen a sudden increase in outage reports with several thousand warnings from email users.
DownDetector said thousands of WhatsApp users had been reporting problems since Tuesday morning. The app’s parent company Meta suffered a major outage last year.
Messages, photos, and videos are simply not sent to the recipient. The Meta group, owner of WhatsApp has not released a statement with regards to the sudden global outage.
The groups other social media networks such as Facebook and Instagram do not seem to be affected by the issue. The outage appears to be only affecting WhatsApp users.
The WhatsApp web application is also experiencing issues, with users unable to log in.
It’s the number one trending topic on Twitter tight now, with many uses boasting that WhatsApp users almost always come there to find out if other social media networks are not working.
WhatsApp itself is yet to Tweet any news about the current global outage.
Meanwhile, there are several new features being developed for WhatsApp that are expected to roll out soon.
As part of the new features, group muting options are now available as are new expressive avatars, shortcuts and forwarding features.
One of the new features coming to WhatsApp is that group members will now be able to leave without everybody knowing. Only the administrator of the group will know that somebody has left the group.
WhatsApp data service, WABetaInfo, reports that in response to the WhatsApp beta for Android update 2.22.23.9, which will allow larger group chats to be muffled automatically, some lucky beta testers have been offered avatars, a new way to express themselves on WhatsApp.
When you make an avatar, it will then be added to your app as a sticker, said WABetaInfo.
“In addition, you can also choose an avatar to use as your profile photo on WhatsApp.”
Source: Eyewitness News, i24 News, Barron’s, image from Twitter: @KewiloOfficial