WhatsApp goes down for thousands as users unable to send or receive messages

28 February 2025, 15:54 | Updated: 28 February 2025, 16:18

WhatsApp Icon on a Smartphone
WhatsApp Icon on a Smartphone. Picture: Alamy

By Henry Moore

Messaging app WhatsApp is down for thousands of users across the UK.

Listen to this article

Loading audio...

Users have been unable to send or receive messages on the popular app.

At least 38,000 reported the app being down, as per DownDetector.

Meta did not comment on the outage, with service quickly returning after it began.

It comes after Meta was forced to issue an apology after receiving a flood of complaints about gore, violence and dead bodies appearing on Instagram reels.

Swathes of Instagram users reported a suspected malfunction in social media platform‘s algorithm, which curates what appears for people on the app.

Reels is a feature similar to TiKTok on the Mark Zuckerberg-owned platform, that lets users share short clips.

In a Reddit forum, users shared how they had been shown horror graphic material appearing in their feeds earlier in the week.

More Technology News

See more More Technology News

A child looks at a phone screen in his bedroom

Most parents of 11 to 16-year-olds say child has internet in bedroom – survey

An electric car being charged

New car tax rules could ‘undermine consumer confidence’ in EVs, Treasury warned

US President Donald Trump

Trump says TikTok sale deal will be in place before Saturday deadline

Close-up of an ant on a leaf with its mouth open

Copying ants could improve grip of robots, research suggests

Dr Simon Rudland, a GP in Suffolk, showing the N-Tidal Diagnose test to a patient

‘Game-changing’ AI-driven lung test set for GP surgery rollout

Cesc Fabregas

Ex-footballer Cesc Fabregas and Google DeepMind founder to speak at SXSW London

Total Solar Eclipse Stretches Across North America From Mexico To Canada

Partial solar eclipse 2025: Rare phenomenon to be visible in UK tomorrow - here's how to see it

Raspberry Pi will publish its full-year financial results on Wednesday (Alamy/PA)

Raspberry Pi to muscle into chip market as results in focus after London IPO

Computer electronic card with chips, microprocessors, transistors, explorers and other electronic parts

Semiconductor start-ups get Government backing

A woman’s hands on a laptop keyboard

Government data scientists to begin AI training programme

A child using an Apple iPhone smartphone

Smartphone bans alone do not give children healthy tech relationship – academics

A man uses a phone in bed at night

Screen time before bed linked to poorer sleep in adults – study

Onlyfans logo and website displayed on smartphone screen

OnlyFans fined £1m over inaccurate responses to information requests

A pregnant woman holding her stomach

Pregnancy scans using AI ‘pick up foetal abnormalities in half the time’

Side view of Donald Trump speaking while at his desk in the Oval Office

Trump suggests he could cut tariffs on China to get TikTok sale approved

A woman’s hand pressing keys of a laptop keyboard

Software provider fined £3m over ransomware attack that hit NHS services