WhatsApp Working On New Tool For Broadcasting Information: All Details

Meta-owned messaging service WhatsApp back online after global outage

KEY POINTS

• WhatsApp, the messaging app owned by Facebook parent Meta, suffered a global outage on Tuesday.
• Problems were first detected around 3:17 a.m. ET, according to Downdetector.com, which monitors outages across internet services.
• Normal service on WhatsApp had appeared to be restored at around 5 a.m. ET.

he Meta-owned instant messaging application WhatsApp is reportedly working on a new one-to-many tool called ‘Channels’ for broadcasting information. With the channels feature, users will easily be able to receive useful updates from people they choose to get news from. The feature is currently under development and it will be available in a future update of the app.

“Thanks to the latest WhatsApp beta for iOS 23.8.0.75 update available on the TestFlight app, we discovered that WhatsApp is also working on bringing this feature to the iOS app in the future," WABetaInfo, a website that tracks WhatsApp, reported.

According to the screenshots shared by WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is planning to rename the Status tab to “Updates” as channels will also be listed within this section of the app. A WhatsApp Channel is a private tool where phone numbers and user information joining a channel are always kept hidden.

However, messages received within a channel are not end-to-end encrypted since the concept of one-to-many wouldn’t make much sense for channels. It is important to note that channels won’t affect the end-to-end encryption of private messaging, which continues to be end-to-end encrypted.

 

WhatsApp, the messaging app owned by Facebook parent Meta, suffered a global outage on Tuesday.

Problems were first detected around 3:17 a.m. ET, according to Downdetector.com, which monitors outages across internet services.

Users reported problems with sending and receiving messages. Normal service on WhatsApp had appeared to be restored at around 5 a.m. ET.

“We know people had trouble sending messages on WhatsApp today. We’ve fixed the issue and apologise for any inconvenience,” a Meta spokesperson told CNBC.

WhatsApp Web, the internet browser version of the messaging service, which previously failed to load, was also working when tested by CNBC.

Meta had confirmed earlier on Tuesday there were issues with WhatsApp.

“We’re aware that some people are currently having trouble sending messages and we’re working to restore WhatsApp for everyone as quickly as possible,” a Meta spokesperson said.

WhatsApp, which has around 2 billion users, is particularly popular in countries such as India and Brazil.

Users across the world from the U.K. to India and Turkey reported outages on Tuesday.

It’s not the first glitch for a Meta-owned platform this year. In August, Facebook users reported a problem where their Feed was spammed with messages from other people that were initially made on celebrity pages.

Other tech companies have also faced technical problems this year. In August, Google’s search engine was briefly down. And in July, Twitter suffered an outage.