Update: WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook down in South Africa

Update, Monday 10am: WhatsApp, Facebook, Messenger and Instagram are now all functional once more for us.

Update, Sunday 2pm: It seems that Instagram’s back, at least for us in Cape Town. Feeds and Stories are loading, albeit slowly. Our WhatsApp messages remain unsent.

Original article: WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook on Sunday were reportedly hit by service outages across the world.

Reports on Twitter suggest that some users are unable to send or receive messages on WhatsApp. On Instagram, feeds refuse to load or refresh. Additionally, some users are also unable to log in to their Facebook accounts.

Is WhatsApp dead? All my other apps are working normally but my messages aren’t going through

— Kat (@katdomingoz) April 14, 2019

#WhatsAppDown is also trending worldwide on Twitter at the time of writing.

Nothing unites us like using Twitter to find out if WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram are all down at the same time. pic.twitter.com/8rBvCUb8iF

— Kevin Coem (@kevincoem) April 14, 2019

#WhatsAppDown #FacebookDown #InstagramDown

*messages not sending on WhatsApp*

Me: *checks Wi-Fi*
*disconnects from Wi-Fi*
*reconnects to Wi-Fi*
*checks WhatsApp*
*restarts phone*
*checks WhatsApp*
*checks Facebook & Instagram*
*checks Wi-Fi*
💡
*finally checks Twitter*

Me: pic.twitter.com/kW5SFpOc7q

— .pessimistic optimist (@vitshii_) April 14, 2019

Lol so I just restarted my phone 3 times, disconnected my WiFi twice, switched off my 3G like 4 times and then came on twitter to see why WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram aren’t working.#whatsappdown #Facebookdown #instagramdown

— Emma Muscat (@EmmaMuscatMusic) April 14, 2019

According to website status tracker DownDetector, the areas hardest hit by WhatsApp service issues include Europe, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Middle East, and South Africa.

DownDetector also notes that the east coast of the US, Europe and Indonesia are most vocal about Instagram and Facebook outages.

The issue seemingly began just before midday SAST on Sunday.

It’s currently unclear what’s causing the service outage, or when Facebook’s services will be restored.

This is a developing story…

Feature image: WhatsApp