WhatsApp down: Chat app falls offline for second time in two weeks

The WhatsApp mobile message app is offline for users across the UK for the second time in as many weeks.

The Facebook-owned service was unavailable from approximately 17:45 BST on 17 May. Several users in London told IBTimes UK that they were unable to use the app, and this reporter is also at the time of writing unable to send or receive messages.

On 3 May the same kind of outage struck WhatsApp globally, stopping millions of people from connecting for several hours.

According to DownDetector, a website which monitors the status of popular social networks, websites and service providers, there are "possible problems" at WhatsApp.

A map of complaints showed WhatsApp was unavailable at the time of publication in London, Berlin, Zurich, Munich, Milan and Rome. There have also been a small number of complaints in New York and San Francisco.

WhatsApp seems to have recovered more quickly this time than it did two weeks ago, as around 45 minutes after the problems began it is now back online for many users.