WhatsApp is more like WhatsDown: Messenger collapsed for millions

Updated It's not you, it's WhatsApp. The Facebook-owned messenger app used by more than a billion people worldwide abruptly stopped working today.

Since about 2000 UTC (1600 ET, 1300 PT), the chat software was unable to send or receive texts. DownDetector.com was, and still is, flooded with complaints of busted service from netizens around the globe – from peeps in the US and Europe to Brazil. No reason for the outage is given.

"WhatsApp is aware of the issue and working to fix it as soon as possible," a WhatsApp spokesperson told El Reg in a rather verbose statement earlier.

It does appear the free service is now slowly getting back on its feet. Depending on where you live, you may be able to get your messages through. America, Spain, no, for example, while, Egypt, Panama, Czech Republic, yes, and so on.

We'll update this story with more info if it's available.

Meanwhile, LinkedIn has been up and down the whole day, too. Gotta love the modern internet. ®

Updated to add

"Earlier today, WhatsApp users in all parts of the world were unable to access WhatsApp for a few hours," a WhatsApp spokesperson told The Register shortly after midnight UTC. "We have now fixed the issue and apologize for the inconvenience."