WhatsApp experienced a widespread outage disrupting communication globally, resolved after several hours, impacting users and businesses alike

On Wednesday afternoon, WhatsApp, the widely used messaging platform with over 2 billion users worldwide, experienced a significant outage that disrupted communication for users across the globe. The outage manifested as connectivity issues, preventing users from accessing the app as they were stuck on the "connecting" screen, unable to establish a stable connection.

Reports of the outage emerged from various countries shortly after 2 PM ET, indicating a widespread disruption in service. Although users could still compose messages, the messages remained undelivered until WhatsApp restored its functionality.

Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, acknowledged the issue through its business APIs status page, which noted an outage affecting the APIs for WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram, commencing at 2:10 PM ET. This outage impacted not only individual users but also businesses relying on these platforms for communication and outreach.

By 4 PM ET, users in the United States reported that the connectivity issues had largely subsided, indicating a resolution to the problem. This was further confirmed by the status page, which declared that the issues had been addressed by 4:45 PM ET. However, despite the restoration of WhatsApp services, Meta has not provided any official explanation or response regarding the cause of the outage.

In addition to WhatsApp, users also encountered disruptions on other Meta-owned platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Users reported difficulties accessing recent posts or creating new content on these platforms. Fortunately, these issues appeared to have been rectified, restoring normal functionality across Meta's ecosystem of services.

The WhatsApp outage occurred just weeks after a widespread Meta outage that affected Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Threads. Unlike the previous outage, which lasted approximately two hours, this incident marks a rare occurrence of WhatsApp being impacted by connectivity issues. The messaging service's last major outage dates back to 2022, highlighting the infrequency of such disruptions.

users also encountered disruptions on other Meta-owned platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Threads