WhatsApp experiences global service outage

WhatsApp users worldwide reported significant difficulties sending and receiving messages during a service outage on Friday, October 16. The disruption, which began around 19:00, saw a sudden spike in reports on Downdetector, with complaints approaching 8,000 in some regions.

While the outage had a global reach, it was particularly notable in Spain, where users in cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia, and Sevilla reported that the application would not load or that messages remained stuck. Other countries, including the United Kingdom, Italy, and Finland, also experienced connectivity issues. During the incident, users described the app as appearing frozen, unable to load content or complete the transmission of text and multimedia elements. Service appeared to begin recovering within minutes as reports subsided.