JOIN USWhatsApp, the rapidly expanding mobile messaging application, suffered an outage for more than three hours on Saturday, frustrating users just days after its acquisition by Facebook for $19 billion.
“WhatsApp service has been restored. We are so sorry for the downtime...,” WhatsApp tweeted to its more than 1 million Twitter followers on Saturday.
Earlier, the service had said it was “experiencing server issues” without providing further details.
Facebook referred questions on the outage to WhatsApp representatives, who did not immediately respond.
Five-year-old WhatsApp currently has about 450 million users globally and has been adding a million users daily.
On Saturday, some of those users took to other forms of social media, including blogs and Twitter, to report the outage and vent their frustration.
WhatsApp is the leader among a wave of smartphone-based messaging applications that are now sweeping across North America, Asia and Europe.
It is known to appeal to teens and others who avoid mainstream social networks.