WhatsApp Users Report Global Outage, Unable To Share Photos & Videos

Meta-owned WhatsApp experienced a global outage on Monday that prevented users from sharing photos, videos, stickers, GIFs and other multimedia content across several countries. Reports of the issue began surfacing early Monday morning, according to monitoring site Downdetector. Of the reported problems, 41 percent were related to messaging, 40 percent to the app itself, and 13 percent to notifications.

Although text messaging remained operational for some, users struggled to send or receive multimedia content, with uploads taking longer or becoming stuck during the process. Text messages were sent and received, but difficulties uploading photos and videos persisted in chats. Users encountered issues such as images appearing in conversations but remaining stuck during upload, loading icons, and prompts to retry actions.

Stickers and GIFs also seemed affected, leading many to believe the disruption was specific to WhatsApp's multimedia services. Larger media files were particularly impacted, facing delays or failing to upload altogether. The widespread problem affected multiple countries, including India, the United Kingdom, France, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Spain, and Colombia, suggesting the issue spanned beyond a localized network or device issue.

The nature and extent of the disruption were not immediately apparent, as users tried common fixes like restarting smartphones, switching between Wi-Fi and mobile data, and reinstalling the application. Despite these attempts, many found the problem remained unresolved, particularly when attempting to send photos and videos. WhatsApp had previously reported service issues on Sunday, but no official statement was issued regarding the current outage.