Meta platforms hit by outage, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram experience glitches worldwide

WhatsApp users across the globe on Saturday, April 12 experienced widespread technical issues, with disruptions reported in sending messages and uploading statuses. The first wave of problems began around 5:22 PM IST and resurfaced again around 8 PM, as tracked by real-time outage monitoring platform DownDetector.

According to DownDetector, at least 597 complaints had been recorded by early evening. Of these, 85% were related to messaging, 12% to general app functionality, and 3% to login difficulties. Frustrated users took to social media platforms to report the glitch, with one user on X (formerly Twitter) commenting on delayed status uploads and declaring that WhatsApp was "down again."

While no official statement has been released by Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram, users also reported concurrent issues accessing both Facebook and Instagram, hinting at a possible larger server-side issue affecting Meta platforms.

This marks the second major disruption for WhatsApp in 2024. The previous incident occurred in late February, when a global outage impacted messaging, voice calling, and WhatsApp Web, prompting over 9,000 complaints globally.

Adding to the digital disruption on April 12, users across India also faced a nationwide outage in digital payment systems, particularly affecting UPI (Unified Payments Interface). As of 12 PM IST, nearly 1,168 complaints were filed regarding failed transactions. Among these, Google Pay users logged 96 complaints, while Paytm accounted for 23 cases.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) responded to the UPI outage, acknowledging internal technical glitches and confirming that some transactions were failing intermittently. NPCI apologized for the inconvenience and assured users that technical teams were working on a resolution with updates to follow.