Instagram users across the world faced another disruption on Wednesday, with thousands reporting that direct messages (DMs) were not working, making it the second major outage involving Meta's platforms in just a few days.
The issue appeared to affect Instagram's messaging feature, with users saying they were unable to send or receive DMs. Several users also reported login difficulties and problems connecting to Instagram's servers during the outage.
According to outage-tracking website Downdetector, complaints about Instagram began rising sharply on Wednesday, with reports surging as users flagged issues with the platform. The number of complaints reportedly crossed thousands before gradually declining as services began returning to normal.
The disruption started around 9 pm in parts of Asia, with outage reports later coming in from users in other regions. While Instagram saw the highest number of complaints, smaller spikes were also reported for other Meta-owned platforms, including Facebook and Messenger.
By late Wednesday, Instagram appeared to have recovered for many users, with reports of problems falling significantly. However, Meta did not immediately provide details about the cause of the outage.
Why were Instagram DMs not working?
The outage appeared to be mainly linked to Instagram's direct messaging system. Users reported that messages failed to send, did not get delivered or remained stuck while attempting to load.
{{/usCountry}}The outage appeared to be mainly linked to Instagram's direct messaging system. Users reported that messages failed to send, did not get delivered or remained stuck while attempting to load.
{{/usCountry}}Some users speculated that the issue could be connected to Meta's broader messaging infrastructure, as Facebook and Messenger also saw a smaller number of reported problems during the same period.
Downdetector, which tracks service disruptions based on user reports, recorded several hundred complaints related to Meta's other platforms, though the scale of those issues was much smaller compared with Instagram.
Second Instagram outage in three days
The latest disruption comes after another major outage on Sunday that affected Instagram, Facebook and Messenger. During that incident, thousands of users reported difficulties logging in, loading feeds and accessing Meta services.
Meta has not publicly confirmed what caused either outage.
As of the latest updates, Instagram's messaging services appeared to be functioning normally for most users. However, the company has not released an official explanation for the cause of the outages.