Overview
On October 25, 2022, WhatsApp, the global messaging service owned by Meta, went down for nearly two hours. Over 2.8 million users were unable to send or receive messages, affecting personal and business communications.
Technical Details
The outage was caused by a backend failure within WhatsApp’s messaging infrastructure, which cut off access for its users across the globe. The platform’s reliance on a centralized infrastructure played a significant role in the widespread disruption.
Impact
- User Disruption: WhatsApp’s 2.8 billion users found themselves disconnected, unable to send messages during the outage.
- Business Impact: The outage disrupted many small businesses and enterprises that use WhatsApp for internal communication and customer service.
Lessons Learned
The outage highlighted the risks associated with centralized messaging services and the need for improved failover systems to ensure continuous communication for billions of users.
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