Messaging service WhatsApp is back online after suffering a widespread global outage that lasted for several hours before being resolved, the Facebook-owned company said.
"Earlier today, WhatsApp users in all parts of the world were unable to access WhatsApp for a few hours. We have now fixed the issue and apologise for the inconvenience," WhatsApp said in an email on Thursday morning.
WhatsApp was down in the UK, western Europe, parts of India, Canada, the US and Brazil, according to Reuters journalists.
It affected people who use the service on Apple Inc's iOS operating system, Alphabet Inc's Android and Microsoft Corp's Windows mobile OS.
In Brazil, where the professional class relies heavily on the messaging service, WhatsApp was down for about two-and-a-half hours.
Many users switched to rival system Telegram, which has picked up millions of customers in Brazil after two previous WhatsApp outages resulting from court orders.
WhatsApp's is used by more than 1.2 billion people and is a key tool for communications and commerce in many countries.
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