UPDATE THREE: A WhatsApp spokesperson has told Express.co.uk that the issues affecting the services today has now been fixed.
On Down Detector the outages on WhatsApp have falled from a peak of a few thousand to now just a handful, suggesting the problem has now been sorted.
UPDATE TWO: WhatsApp have given an update on the outage that has been affecting users across the globe today.
A WhatsApp spokesperson has told Express.co.uk that they are aware of the issue and are looking into it.
They said: “We are aware of the issue and working to resolve it.”
It appears that the issue is getting resolved for many users, as the number of reported issues with the service on Down Detector has fallen sharply.
UPDATE ONE: The WhatsApp outage is still going on almost an hour after users first reported the service is down.
And the number of WhatsApp users reporting that the chat app is not working has continued to grow.
Independent website Down Detector UK has registered a peak of 2,716 WhatsApp users experiencing issues with the service today.
The vast majority of problems are with connection issues, while users have also reported problems sending and receiving messages.
While downdetector.com registered a peak of 4,853 users experiencing issues with WhatsApp today.
ORIGINAL: WhatsApp is down at the moment with the Facebook-owned chat app not working for hundreds of users, according to independent website Down Detector.
WhatsApp users have been hit by connection issues, problems sending or receiving messages and trouble logging in.
WhatsApp users in the UK, US and in Europe are experiencing issues, according to Down Detector.
Independent website DownDetector, which tracks social comments around a certain topic to monitor outages across the globe, has mapped the problems.
WhatsApp was bought by Facebook for an eye-watering $19 billion (£13 billion) in February 2014.
The cross-platform messenger now boasts more than 1.2 billion users.
Down Detector has registered a peak 606 WhatsApp users in the UK experiencing issues, with the problem starting around 4.15pm BST.
The vast majority of WhatsApp issues is with connection, with some 60 per cent of users experiencing connectivity problems, according to Down Detector.
Around a third (32 per cent) are experiencing problems sending or receiving messages while 10 per cent are having login problems.
WhatsApp users have taken to rival social networking site Twitter to report issues with the service today.
One user tweeted: “Whatsapp is down, don’t panic”.
While another added: “Anyone else’s WhatsApp down?”
And one posted: “#whatsappdown bloody great”.
The Down Detector outage map showed issues with WhatsApp in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, the US, Argentina and Brazil, among other countries.
Express.co.uk have contacted WhatsApp for comment.
This is not the first outage that WhatsApp has suffered this year.
The hugely-popular Facebook-owned chat app went offline for thousands of users back in May.
The outage lasted hours, with WhatsApp forced to issue a statement about the disruption to the service.
Speaking at the time, a spokesperson for the company said: “Earlier today, WhatsApp users in all parts of the world were unable to access WhatsApp for a few hours.
“We have now fixed the issue and apologise for the inconvenience.”
WhatsApp also suffered another worldwide outage earlier this month, with hundreds of users affected.
WhatsApp has steadily added a number of new features over the last year, including support for GIFs and FaceTime-style video calls.
Earlier this week Express.co.uk reported on how WhatsApp had followed Facebook’s lead to introduce a brand new surprise feature.
WhatsApp have rolled out an update to their Status feature, which lets users write text on a colourful image background.
WhatsApp Status debuted as a text-only feature, but has grown to include photos and videos.
The latest update lets users choose a font, a background colour and also add in hyperlinks.
The feature is specifically for WhatsApp’s Snapchat-like Status feature, and is different from the old-school text status that has been re-introduced.
It’s similar to the new Facebook status feature, which lets user issue text statuses that are on top of a colourful background image.
WhatsApp recently announced that it had passed one billion daily active users.
The hugely-successful chat app was originally launched in 2009 by ex-Yahoo! employees Brian Acton and Jan Koum.
The service has gone from strength to strength, especially since the Facebook acquisition in 2014.