WhatsApp Is Back Online, But What Went Wrong? Mzansi Jokes: “They Are Trying to Bring Back Mxit”

• WhatsApp went offline for a little over an hour in the early hours of Tuesday Morning, 25 October
• Countries in Asia, Europe and Africa were unable to send messages or voice notes or make and receive audio and video calls
• Mzansi took to social media to share hilarious theories about the cause of the outage

CALIFORNIA - Countless people could not communicate for over an hour when WhatsApp services went offline on Tuesday morning, 25 October.

The seemingly global outage resulted in messages, video calls and voice notes not going through. The system came back online briefly at around 10:45am but went back to sleep at 11am.

Now the messaging service has returned to full functionality and seems stable, but the question on everybody's minds is, "What went wrong?"

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According to Business Insider, initially, users would see a single tick when attempting to send messages. The single tick quickly turned into the clock icon, indicating that messages weren't going through.

Initiating video calls was met with the same problems as the calling screen would be brought up, followed by the message: "Couldn't place call. Make sure your device has an internet connection and try again."

It didn't take long for users to connect the dots and figure out it wasn't a network problem but a problem with WhatsApp itself.

WhatsApp's parent company, Meta, has stayed silent on the exact cause of the outage, but a Meta spokesperson apologised for the inconvenience, stating that the problem has been fixed, Aljazeera reported.

This is not the first time the messaging service has gone offline. In October 2021, it went down for several hours, and the company confirmed incorrect configuration changes to its router caused the outage.

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As for the cause of this year's outage, WhatsApp consumers may have to wait a while to find out.

South Africans react to the inconvenient WhatsApp outage

In the meantime, Briefly News posted a Facebook post asking Mzansi how it dealt with the WhatApp outage. The responses were riddled with hilarious theories and coping mechanisms in true South African fashion.

Here are some reactions:

Tebogo Jefrey Seabela said:

"I almost thought my neighbours switched off their Wi-Fi."

Samukelisiwe MaGumede Dlamini commented:

"Lapho I've been switching on and off my data."

Thamie ZT Zulu stated:

"Finally, we can use our free SMS "

Entle Presh McKay complained:

"My business ayihambi cannot connect with my clients."

Aprilkid Kis claimed:

"This has affected my new relationship, hence we don't stay at the same place."

Thendo Permly Thavhana

"‍I just unstalled and re-installed still wondering why it's still not working."

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Terry Thorntonberg hoped:

"I hope it deletes all my drunk texts from yesterday when it comes back‍."

Khwathe KM Mnguni grumbled:

"Tjoo hawuu! R200 gone, I thought my data n airtime is finished."

Thembelani Hukwe claimed:

"I blame ANC, Eskom and Kaizer Chiefs for this... And it's affecting me badly."

Flymotion Lomnyama suggested:

"They are trying to bring back Mxit, relax."

Prince DE P added:

"I licked my sim card thinking it was a network problem."

Mzansi shared hilarious reactions to peep who shared what I ordered vs what I got snaps: “All my money gone”

In another story, Briefly News reported that social media users shared mixed reactions to a post by a netizen who was disappointed after buying a biker jacket online.

It seems people do not learn their lessons when buying stuff online. Many always end up sharing their nasty experiences online.

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In a recent episode of what I ordered vs what I got, a Twitter user with the handle @Jaresh012 posted a collage of the jacket he ordered and another product he received.

Source: Briefly News