WhatsApp has come back online for many users after a service outage knocked the popular messaging app offline for around two hours on Tuesday morning. The Meta-owned platform has not yet confirmed the cause of the fault but had told users earlier on Tuesday that it was working to fix it.
WhatsApp users across the UK and the rest of the world awoke on Tuesday to find that while most could access their conversations, they were unable to send or receive any new messages. A persistent message was showing for many users at the top of the app, saying it is “connecting” to the server, but was never able to complete this process, leaving them offline.
The outage had come 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 members of Parliament.
On the day of a 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 and the fate of their colleagues. The app has previously been identified as the communications tool of choice for MPs plotting against their leader.
Boris Johnson is said to have often been sent summaries of key Government information via the app during his time in Downing Street. Many users had taken to social media to express their frustration at the issue.
In response, a WhatsApp spokesperson said the company had been “working to restore WhatsApp for everyone as quickly as possible”. The company has not yet commented further on what caused the problem or how it had been fixed.
