Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp are back online after an hour crash that frustrated users worldwide

Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp are back online after an hour outage that frustrated users across the world

  •  Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook and Messenger are back online after an outage
  • All four of the social media apps stopped working worldwide about 5:30pm GMT
  • The outages were first reported earlier this evening by website Downdetector 

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp went down for about one hour across the world earlier, leaving social media users frustrated and unable to connect.

The social tools, all owned by Facebook, including the platform’s own Messenger service, were first reported as not being available from 15:30 GMT on Friday. 

Users visiting Instagram online were shown a simple error message saying ‘5xx Server Error’, with no other information provided.

Some Facebook users were able to sign in to the app, although 63 percent of reports on downdetector.com suggested there was a ‘total blackout’. 

The social tools, all owned by Facebook, including the platform’s own Messenger service, were first reported as not being available from 5:30pm GMT on Friday

Some Facebook users were able to sign in to the app, although 63 percent of reports on downdetector.com suggested there was a 'total blackout'

Some Facebook users were able to sign in to the app, although 63 percent of reports on downdetector.com suggested there was a ‘total blackout’ 

A Facebook spokeswoman told Business Insider: ‘Earlier today, a technical issue caused people to have trouble accessing some Facebook services.

‘We resolved this issue for everyone, and we apologise for any inconvenience.’ 

There was a sudden spike of reports on downdetector for the Facebook owned services, with the outage affecting the entire Facebook social product line. 

Users have taken to social media to express their frustration at not being able to connect to friends, family or work colleagues. 

Popular TV show Family Guy even shared its desperation, following the brief outage. 

One user shared a picture of the word ‘connecting….’ and said ‘wifi on and off, phone on and down, switch to data, instagram still down, what’s app still down.’

Users flocked to social media to express their frustration at not being able to connect to friends, family or work colleagues

Users flocked to social media to express their frustration at not being able to connect to friends, family or work colleagues

Another talked about using one form of social media to check on another, tweeting that they came to Twitter ‘to see if WhatsApp and Instagram is down.’ 

While Facebook is yet to comment on the outage, of those who reported issues to DownDetector with Instagram, 77 percent said they had problems with their news feed, 11 percent with the website and 10 percent with log-in.

The last major outage of a Facebook platform, in January, saw Instagram’s desktop site and app go down for roughly two hours across the globe.

Most of the social media comments revolvedu00A0 around users turning to Twitter to find out what is happening with Instagram or WhatsApp

Most of the social media comments revolved  around users turning to Twitter to find out what is happening with Instagram or WhatsApp

The Instagram website was showing a 5xx Server Error message

The Instagram website was showing a 5xx Server Error message

Most of the social media comments revolved around users turning to Twitter to find out what is happening with Instagram or WhatsApp. 

One user shared a picture of people being chased, adding the words ‘me running to twitter to check what happened to WhatsApp again’.

Last year Facebook moved to unify the back end systems of Facebook Messenger and Instagram, effectively merging the two chat platforms. 

This was the first phase in a new unified messaging service for Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

HOW DO YOU CHECK HOW MUCH TIME YOU SPEND ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM?

Facebook and Instagram users can now monitor how much time they spend within the app, thanks to new tools designed to improve your digital health.

The new feature is found in the settings menu of each app.

For Facebook users on iOS, tap on the three line symbol in the bottom-right corner of the app to launch the settings menu.

Android users need to tap the same symbol, but will find it at the top-right.

Scroll down the settings menu and tap on the ‘Your Time on Facebook’ option.

For Instagram, users will need to load the settings page, and then scroll down to the option marked ‘Your Activity’.

Both apps include a breakdown of the exact number of minutes you’ve spent on Facebook and Instagram using a particular device.

This data is presented in the style of a bar chat, with users able to tap any bar to see the total time spent for that particular day.

Scrolling further down the page, Facebook and Instagram include the option to set a daily reminder that sends an alert after you’ve reached the amount of time you want to spend on the app for that day.

You can change or cancel the reminder at any time by heading back to the same settings menu.

In the same settings menu on Instagram and Facebook, you can tap on ‘Notification Settings’ to access an updated ‘Mute Push Notifications’ tool.

This lets you mute all notifications from the social network app for a predetermined period of time.