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While it is rare for Apple to have frequent outages, this is the second time in a month that Meta services such as Facebook and Instagram were down.
Apple and Meta were both hit by separate global outages yesterday (3 April), with users across various regions unable to access some services.
Apple’s system status page showed that services including the App Store, Fitness Plus, Music, TV Plus and Podcasts were facing issues. The outage began just after 11pm Irish time and affected users across the US and parts of Europe and Asia-Pacific.
More than 6,000 people reported issues with the App Store, according to Downdetector, including more than 150 people in Ireland. Thousands around the world also reported being left without access to Apple Music and TV Plus.
According to the company, all issues relating to the outage have now been resolved and no statement has been released on the cause.
Meta also faced similar issues last night with its popular messaging app WhatsApp, which was down for several hours. Facebook and Instagram were also affected.
WhatsApp acknowledged the outage in a post on X last night saying that it was working to get the platform back up and running after some users experienced issues. A few hours later, WhatsApp said the issue had been resolved and the app was working again.
We know some people are experiencing issues right now, we're working on getting things back to 100% for everyone as quickly as possible
— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) April 3, 2024
Downdetector data shows around 20,000 people reported facing issues accessing WhatsApp at its peak, while thousands also reported problems with Instagram and fewer with Facebook. As of this morning, all Meta services appear to be back up and running.
While Apple outages are few and far between, this is the second time in less than a month that Meta has seen disruptions across its family of apps.
In March, many users of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and even Threads – the new social media app to take on X – complained the apps were not working.
In March 2022, Meta said that a “technical issue” caused some people to have trouble accessing its apps and services briefly, including Facebook and Instagram – less than a year after Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram were all down for several hours after a “cascading” network issue took out all the company’s services for billions of people across the world.
Apple fixed multiple outages in the same week in 2022, while X suffered a global outage in December last year during which users were unable to view posts.
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