On Friday afternoon, messaging giant WhatsApp experienced a brief outage, impacting thousands of users worldwide.

According to Downdetector, a platform that tracks service disruptions, over 50,000 users reported issues starting at 3:30 PM GMT. Reports began to decline shortly after, signaling a quick recovery.

WhatsApp confirmed the problem, stating that users had trouble sending messages, but the issue has now been resolved.

“We know some people briefly had trouble sending messages on WhatsApp,” a spokesperson told the BBC. “We’ve fixed the issue.”

Were Other Meta Platforms Affected?

Some users also reported minor disruptions on Facebook and Facebook Messenger, but these were far fewer than those seen on WhatsApp.

WhatsApp’s Massive Global User Base

WhatsApp, an end-to-end encrypted messaging app owned by Meta since 2014, boasts nearly three billion users worldwide.

The last major Meta outage, affecting both WhatsApp and Instagram, occurred in December.

In January, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors that the company aims to make WhatsApp the leading messaging platform in the U.S., as it is in many other parts of the world.

With over two billion calls happening daily on the app, even minor technical glitches can impact millions globally.

How Does This Compare to Past Outages?

While recent Meta outages have been relatively minor, they pale in comparison to the 2021 global outage, which took down WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram for nearly six hours.

For real-time updates on WhatsApp outages, check Downdetector or follow WhatsApp’s official social media channels.