North Americans may still have a few hours left to get their New Year's phone calls or text messages sent out to their family and loved ones, but halfway around the world, many people who have already rung in 2018 were left in an outrage when popular messaging tool WhatsApp decided to malfunction in a big way.
According to Metro UK, WhatsApp is currently used by more than a billion people worldwide, and is second only to Facebook Messenger has the globe's most popular Internet-based messaging app. Reports have put the outage as the worst in much of northern Europe, which includes the United Kingdom, as well as for users in Spain, India, Malaysia, New York and Brazil.
As expected, those who were unable to send messages to their loved ones through WhatsApp took to another social network, Twitter, to vent their frustrations to the public. Many were at least sort of comforted by the fact that it wasn't their smartphone or other mobile device that was at fault in the end. Check out some of the reaction below.
https://twitter.com/_/status/947542961343963136
https://twitter.com/_/status/947547340419710977
https://twitter.com/_/status/947543274977456137
For some at least, the lack of functionality with the app may have been a blessing in disguise. As such, a few people may be starting their new year off without regret thanks to some technical difficulty.
https://twitter.com/_/status/947543349199818752
For more New Year's Eve prep, including some music suggestions from our Fire Emoji playlist, click here.
