Facebook apologises to WhatsApp users for system crash

WhatsApp users were caught breathless on Saturday night when one of the most popular messaging services experienced a temporary server crash. Users of WhatsApp reported on Saturday that the rapidly expanding mobile messaging app was down, just days after its acquisition by Facebook for $16 billion.

Facebook apologised to users after the service became unavailable. The team behind the instant messaging service blamed "server issues" for the crash. WhatsApp has more than 450 million global users every month. 

Problems were noticed by users including Olympic diver Tom Daley who tweeted: “Anyone else’s WhatsApp stopped working?”

At 8.16pm WhatsApp tweeted: “Sorry we currently experiencing server issues. We hope to be back up and recovered shortly.”

At 10.48pm they announced: “WhatsApp service has been restored. We are so sorry for the downtime.”

Around 70% of WhatsApp’s users use the app every day, according to Facebook The service allows users to send messages over internet, avoiding text messaging fees. It's claimed it is currently registering one million new users a day.