WhatsApp’s six-hour outage shows we all need more than one chat app

WhatsApp's recent six-hour outage is proof to the app's two billion users that relying on it for all communication is risky. — dpa

Monday’s six-hour outage of Facebook and Instagram might have been a nuisance for those wanting to check in on news and posts from friends, but things are different when a chat app with two billion active users goes down for more than half of a working day.

WhatsApp’s sudden outage meant that millions of group chats, aimed at things like coordinating a workplace, keeping in touch with family and arranging events, all stopped working, as did one-to-one messaging and calls.