UAE: WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram are back after over 2 hours of glitches

After nearly an hour of spotty connection, mainly on web, WhatsApp services were back online at around 12.10pm. Facebook and Instagram returned to normal a couple of hours later.

WhatsApp users in the UAE reported issues while sending messages on the app, both on mobile and desktop, on Saturday morning. Glitches were also seen in other Meta platforms, Facebook and Instagram.

WhatsApp messages were being sent with only with one gray tick mark, while those on desktop had been logged out. After a few minutes, texts started going through on app, but the web platform remained down. "The site can't be reached," according to the error message.

Monitoring platform Downdetector.com registered a spike in users reporting WhatsApp issues at 10.47am.

The spike was also seen for Facebook from 11.11am, Messenger from 11.14am, and Instagram from 11.12am.

While Facebook and Instagram apps appeared to be working fine (though slow for some), the sites were not loading on desktop browsers until past 2pm.

• UAE: Residents warned of suspicious messages through WhatsApp, social media