Instagram is down globally: All the features users say aren’t working

Dubai: If you have been staring at a broken Instagram feed this morning wondering what is going on, you are not alone.

The platform is experiencing a widespread outage affecting users around the world, and so far Instagram has not issued any public statement about what is causing it.

What is not working

According to outage-tracking website Downdetector, over 13,000 problem reports were filed this morning. Users are reporting issues across several areas of the app, including:

• The Instagram mobile app and website

• Direct messages, with many users saying their entire message inbox has gone blank

• Late notifications, unable to send messages

• Chat themes disappearing from conversations

• The search tool not loading

• The feed and timeline not refreshing

• Server connection errors

About 85 per cent of complaints are linked to the app itself, 11 per cent to the website, and the remaining 4 per cent to specific features like the feed and timeline. The actual number of affected users is likely higher than what Downdetector is showing, as it only tracks submitted reports.

What users are saying

Frustrated users have taken to Reddit and other platforms to share what they are experiencing.

"Around two hours ago, my message page didn't show any messages at all, even though I have plenty," one user wrote.

Another said: "My messages, my contacts on Instagram, I can't use the search tool or even scroll up. The whole thing is just broken right now."

A third user reported that a shared chat theme had disappeared from both their and their friend's DMs simultaneously.

What is causing it

It is not yet clear what triggered the outage. Early signs point to a server error rather than any kind of cyberattack, though this has not been confirmed. Facebook and WhatsApp, which are both owned by Meta, appear to be unaffected, suggesting the problem is specific to Instagram.

This is not the first time the platform has gone down. A similar global outage occurred around two years ago, affecting both Instagram and Facebook at the same time.

For now, the best advice is to be patient. Instagram has not yet responded publicly, but given the scale of the reports, a fix is likely in progress.

Areeba Hashmi is a trainee at Gulf News.