WhatsApp Services Restored After Hours-Long Outage for Users in India, Other Regions

Thousands of WhatsApp users reported the service was unavailable on downtime tracking service Downdetector.

Written by David Delima, Edited by Siddharth Suvarna | Updated: 25 October 2022 14:54 IST

Photo Credit: Reuters

WhatsApp was not accessible on Android, iOS and via the desktop apps

Highlights

WhatsApp services appear to be down since 12:30pm IST
Users in India and around the world unable to send messages
WhatsApp Web, desktop apps also affected by the downtime

WhatsApp is down for several users, according to thousands of reports from users of the popular messaging app owned by Facebook parent Meta. Based on reports on downtime tracking services, users in India and around the world are currently unable to access the messaging app. WhatsApp has acknowledged that it is aware that users are unable to access the service. Gadgets 360 was able to confirm that sending messages on personal chats as well as groups was not working on WhatsApp for Android, iOS and the desktop app.

[Update: By around 2.45pm, Gadgets 360 was able to send and receive messages on WhatsApp via mobile and the desktop apps, suggesting that functionality was slowly being restored].

According to statistics from website and app downtime tracking service Downdetector, users in India began to report issues with accessing WhatsApp at around 12:30pm on Tuesday, with about 2,610 reports. At the time of publishing, reports on Downdetector had jumped to 25,597, indicating widespread issues among users of the popular messaging service.

Downdetector had over 25,000 user reports
Photo Credit: Screenshot/ Downdetector.in

Downdetector's user reports from users in the UK were at 63,930, while there were 4,248 and 26,043 reports from users in Brazil and Spain, respectively.

In India, Downdetector's "heat-map" suggested that Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and other regions appear to be the most affected by the downtime.

Users have also taken to Twitter to complain about the service's downtime, with over 66,500 tweets with the hashtag #whatsappdown at the time of publishing.

At the moment, users are unable to send a message via WhatsApp for Android or iOS. WhatsApp typically shows a single tick mark for a message that has been sent, and two tick marks when a message has been delivered. However, Gadgets 360 was able to confirm that no tick marks are displayed when sending messages in group chats or individual conversations.

WhatsApp Web and WhatsApp's desktop apps, which work independently of a connected phone's internet connection, also appear to be similarly affected by the outage.

Meta has acknowledged that some users are facing issues accessing the service and is working on a fix. "We're aware that some people are currently having trouble sending messages and we're working to restore WhatsApp for everyone as quickly as possible," a Meta spokesperson told ANI.

This week, we discuss Android 13 on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Further reading: WhatsApp, WhatsApp Down

David Delima

Email David Delima

As a writer on technology with Gadgets 360, David Delima is interested in open-source technology, cybersecurity, consumer privacy, and loves to read and write about how the Internet works. David can be contacted via email at DavidD@ndtv.com, on Twitter at @DxDavey, and Mastodon at mstdn.social/@delima. More