WhatsApp is down worldwide due to a major outage

WhatsApp crashed worldwide on Wednesday afternoon, impacting the messaging service’s 2 billion users. Users began having trouble connecting to WhatsApp in several countries just after 2pm ET today, with the service stuck on “connecting” for many.

Users could still send messages, but they weren’t delivered until WhatsApp came back online.

A status page for Meta Business APIs has been updated to note an outage affecting service on the APIs for connecting to WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram as of 2:10 pm ET.

As of 4pm ET, the issues appeared to be resolved for most of us in the US; and as of 4:45 pm ET, the status page confirmed that things should be fixed. On the edge contacted Meta about the issues, but we have not yet received a response.

For other Meta services like Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, many people have reported issues when trying to view recent posts or create new posts on the services, but they now appear to be working consistently again.

Update April 3, 2:53 pm ET: Added details about Facebook and Instagram issues.

Update April 3, 4:58 pm ET: Observed access appears to have been restored for some.

Update April 3, 5:17pm ET: Observed access appears to have been restored for some.