On April 12th, WhatsApp users experienced widespread disruptions, impacting their ability to send messages via the mobile app and web-based platform. The outage was reported across Singapore, neighboring countries, and globally, triggering a surge in user complaints and social media buzz.

Downdetector, a service monitoring online service statuses, recorded a peak of 1,964 reports in Singapore at 10:50 PM. Earlier, at 7:50 PM, there were 398 reports. Neighboring countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia also faced similar issues, with 1,743 and 944 reports respectively. The main Downdetector site peaked at 3,291 reports at 10:52 PM. Google Trends showed that searches for "WhatsApp down" spiked at 7:52 PM in Singapore, followed by another spike from 10 PM to just before 11 PM.

Reports also emerged from India, where users were unable to send messages or upload statuses. Social media platforms, particularly X (formerly Twitter), saw users from India, Indonesia, and Vietnam confirming the outage. Screenshots showed exclamation marks next to undelivered messages.

Singaporean blogger Lee Kin Mun (mrbrown) commented on Facebook, humorously suggesting a delay in sending good night posts due to the disruption.

In India, Downdetector logged approximately 3,000 reports, with over 90% related to message sending problems. The remaining reports cited server connection issues and app malfunctions. Members of The Times of India's technology team also confirmed experiencing difficulties.

Globally, around 2,800 users reported similar issues, with 91% citing problems sending messages, 6% reporting app issues, and 3% experiencing problems receiving messages.

Meta, WhatsApp's parent company, has yet to issue an official statement explaining the cause of the disruption.

Social media platforms were flooded with reports and memes as users humorously reacted to the outage, using hashtags like #whatsappdown to share their experiences and check if others were facing the same problems.

The WhatsApp issue appears to have been resolved later in the evening.

This incident follows a similar disruption in March, where Facebook and Instagram, also owned by Meta, faced global outages for two hours. Users were logged out of their accounts and unable to log back in, which Reuters reported was due to a command issued during routine maintenance that unintentionally took down connections in the platform’s backbone network.