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Humor greets WhatsApp outage in Indonesia
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What’s up?: Popular messaging app WhatsApp experienced an outage of around half an hour on Oct. 25 across the globe, including in Indonesia. (Reuters/Dado Ruvic/Illustration)
Some users were thankful for the outage, which gave them temporary relief from nonstop work notifications.
WhatsApp, owned by United States tech giant Meta Platforms Inc., went down around the globe for approximately half an hour on Oct. 25.
A Meta spokesperson promised to resolve the situation ”as quickly as possible”, AFP reported.
“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,” the spokesperson told AFP, adding that “the origin of the outage is unclear”.
Many Indonesian users reacted with humor to the outage of the popular messaging app, known colloquially as "WA".
Twitter user Emrayen wrote: “Alhamdulillah [Blessed be God] WA error, [my] phone can take a short break from dinging work notifications.”
alhamdulillah wa error, hp istirahat sejenak dari tunangtuning notif kerjaan
— emrayen (@emrayennn) Oct. 25, 2022
Meanwhile, Cle tweeted, “WA error, my life is at peace.”
Alhamdulillah WA error, tenang idup gue
— Cle (@demeterxchu) Oct. 25, 2022
And BAIRA (@tiannss) wrote: “WA has a problem. At least I won’t be asked about work today,” followed by laughter.
Alhamdulillah WA bermasalah. Minimal hari ini gak ditanyain kerjaan. Jahaha.
— BAIRA ⚡️ (@tiannss) Oct. 25, 2022
However, not everyone was pleased about the temporary glitch, which occurred sometime between 2 p.m. and 3:40 p.m. Jakarta time.
“I mainly use WhatsApp to communicate with customers, so I was frustrated during the time,” said Herlina Hermanto, 40, who runs an online store.
“As a merchant, I might lose the chance to sell my items if I can’t respond to a customer,” the mother of three added.
Yuli Istiana, 41, an education consultant, also shared her frustration over the WhatsApp outage.
“I wasn’t able to send a Zoom meeting link to the other participants because of the WhatsApp error, so I had to contact them by phone and SMS,” said Yuli.
“It was hectic and these days, individuals depend on messaging services like WhatsApp,” she stressed.
