It looks like Google services are encountering an unexpected disruption as users across the globe report similar issues. Drive, Docs, Groups, Chat, Keep, Voice, and Gmail were apparently not working for some user on Thursday. Even though many were affected, it appears to be a mixed bag with claims of full functionality, while others could not access certain features. The internet search company has already acknowledged the problem and will investigate what caused it.

These early reports from users were likewise confirmed by third-party web monitoring service Downdetector. This was based on aggregated reports that came in around 12:04 a.m. ET. Social media platforms such as Twitter also saw a spike of users complaining about it. On Facebook, it was a similar scene as those who rely on Google's suite of services vented out their frustration

Meanwhile, as the Independent points out, the interruptions occurred roughly within the same timeframe as Slack's unscheduled downtime. The messaging platform stated that its users might encounter problems sending/receiving messages or connecting to its servers.

Although there is little to no evidence that the selective outages are related, both are now working to restore their respective services. Upon checking the status page, there was a message the read: "We're investigating reports of an issue with Gmail. We will provide more information shortly." Later, it then followed up with another update telling users that it needed more time to resolve the unidentified cause of the outage.

At 1:29 a.m. ET another post went up which included details such as: "Gmail sending issues, Meet recording issues, Creating files issues in Drive, CSV user upload issues in Admin Console, Posting message issues in Google Chat, Sites adding new pages issues, Keep issues, Voice mail issues."

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Silicon Valley giant Google has been one of the leading beneficiaries of the H1-B visa system that President Donald Trump is putting on hold. Photo: AFP / NICHOLAS KAMM

After a few more hours – at 5:40 a.m. ET Google confirmed that select users who were unable to access Gmail could now do so. As for the other services, everything else was fully restored by 7:35 a.m. Soon after the outage was resolved, sources noted that work on the technical issues would have taken longer if not for the information such as location to help engineers narrow down the source of the interruption.

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