It’s not just you — Google Talk is down

No, it’s not just your computer or your phone or your tablet — it’s everyone. Google has confirmed that its messaging service is offline, and that it’s working on the problem.

Visitors to its app status dashboard will be greeted by a comforting red dot, and the following message:

We’re aware of a problem with Google Talk affecting a majority of users. The affected users are able to access Google Talk, but are seeing error messages and/or other unexpected behavior. We will provide an update by 7/26/12 1:50 PM detailing when we expect to resolve the problem. Please note that this resolution time is an estimate and may change.

Google’s updated the status twice since then, only to say that it’s continuing to investigate the issue and to “thank you for your patience.” It hasn’t confirmed when the service will be back online.

The extent of the problem varies between devices and users, but it seems to be a global issue which extends to the Google Talk desktop or mobile client and the built-in Gmail chat version. Some users have been met with a simple error message that states the contact did not receive their message, others cannot connect to the service completely or do not see their contact list.

Update:

The problem seems to have been resolved. Google updated the dashboard shortly after 5pm CAT today with this message:

The problem with Google Talk should be resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support. Please rest assured that system reliability is a top priority at Google, and we are making continuous improvements to make our systems better. If you are still experiencing an issue, please contact us via the Google Help Center.