Whatsapp crashes on New Year's Eve

Dubai: Whatsapp, rated among the world's most popular messenging apps, has apparently crashed on New Year's Eve, according to end-users.

Gulf News first learnt about the crash at around 8.40pm. The hiccup lasted for about 20 minutes; the service came back at 9.04pm.

Some tech bloggers had earlier reported that the messenger is vulnerable to crash, especially with excessive use of emojis.

One blogger even gave a video demonstration of Whatsapp crashing in both a web browser and on a mobile device.

WhatsApp, which Facebook bought in 2014 in a mega tech deal worth $22 billion, is a free instant messaging service that has recorded over 900 million users as of September 2015.

The app is extremely popular especially among youngsters, as it allows users to send audio, video and text messages freely in a straightforward way, via a Wifi or 3G link.

On WhatsApp, user groups can be created and share all files such as video, audio, image and text.

In most juristictions, Whatsapp users are also allowed to make both international and local voice calls via the internet without incurring carrier’s billing charges.