Messaging service WhatsApp back online after hours-long outage

Messaging service WhatsApp appears to be fully back online after suffering an outage on Tuesday for about two hours, causing chaos for users in Ireland and worldwide.

Users of the Meta-owned service had said they could not send or receive new messages, with the system showing a constant “connecting” message.

Website DownDetector, which tracks reports of outages, indicated the issues began shortly after 8am, with thousands of reports pouring in over the next hour. Users also took to twitter to complain about the problems with the service.

“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 spokesperson for parent company Meta said.

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The Meta-owned platform has not yet confirmed the cause of the fault but had told users earlier on Tuesday it was working to fix it.

Many users found a persistent message was showing at the top of the app, saying it is “connecting” to the server, but was never able to complete this process, leaving them offline.

In the UK, the outage came at an unfortunate moment for Conservative MPs who had been left without a crucial communications tool on the day Rishi Sunak enters office as prime minister and begins a cabinet reshuffle. WhatsApp is widely known to be a popular service among British MPs.

On the day of the cabinet reshuffle, many MPs hopeful of landing a ministerial job would have been without a vital way of sounding out advisers and contacts on their own chances.

Many users had taken to social media to express their frustration at the issue. In response, WhatsApp apologised for the outage.

“We know people had trouble sending messages on WhatsApp today,” a spokesperson for the messaging platform said. “We’ve fixed the issue and apologise for any inconvenience.”

WhatsApp has more than 2 billion users worldwide. – additional reporting: PA