WhatsApp back online after outage across UK

WhatsApp has come back online for many users following a service outage that lasted for about two hours.

By 10.30am on Tuesday, the service status monitoring website DownDetector was reporting a significant drop in users saying they were unable to access the messaging app.

WhatsApp had confirmed earlier in the morning that it was aware of an issue and was working to fix it, but the company has not yet confirmed the cause of the fault.

Thousands have taken to social media to complain that they are unable to send or receive messages on the popular Meta-owned platform.

Among the most concerned users of the app were likely to be Conservative MPs – the platform is a widely used tool among backbenchers, Cabinet ministers, and their aides to discuss public messaging and regularly gauge the mood of the Parliamentary party.

And on the day of a Cabinet reshuffle, many MPs hopeful of landing a ministerial job were 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, and Boris Johnson is said to have often been sent summaries of key government information via the app during his time in Downing Street.

A persistent message was showing for many users at the top of the app, saying it was “connecting” to the server, but then appeared to fail to do so, leaving users unable to send or receive any messages.

According to the service status website Downdetector, users began reporting issues with WhatsApp at just before 8am on Tuesday morning, with more than 12,000 reports of issues reported to the website by 8.30am.

WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging platforms in the UK and around the world and is estimated to have more than two billion active users globally.