Global Slack messaging outage cuts world off from colleagues

No, your colleagues aren't just taking ages to respond, Slack is currently staggering to its feet after experiencing a global outage across all regions.

Although the Status page until just minutes ago was showing a sea of green ticks, the problems started about an hour ago. Other app platform functions such as Notifications, Login and Search all showed an up status (meaning most people were still happily typing messages into Slack alongside a green circle showing their online status) – so if a user had the app up and running, there was no way they'd know of the outage, other than getting no response to messages. Users have told us their messages appeared to be sending, and were not greyed out as in previous outages, but nonetheless did not appear on their colleagues' apps.

Messaging appears to be coming back online in some parts, but has been down for the count across the world for nearly an hour.

Slack noted on its Status Page at 0953 UTC: "Slack is experiencing an outage across the app. Users may be experiencing trouble with sending messages, using workflows and various other actions in Slack. We're investigating and will let you know as soon as we know more. We appreciate your patience in the meantime."

As one Twitter commentator noted just minutes ago: "I thought it was a local issue because the status page was all green."

• Microsoft injects AI into Teams so no one will ever forget what the meeting decided
• Virgin Media email customers enter third day of inbox infuriation
• Where are we now, Microsoft 362.5? Europe reports outages
• Users of 123 Reg caught out by catch-all redirect cut-off

Matthew Hodgson, CEO of UK-based end-to-end encrypted messaging appElement, said: "The centralized design of Slack means that, when there is a problem, it's likely that the entire service goes down.

"Decentralized systems are far more reliable as they can withstand significant disruption and still keep workforces communicating. It's one of the reasons why we're seeing an increase in enterprises using Element and the decentralized Matrix network."

The comms platform, bought by Salesforce in 2020 for $27 billion, hauled in $1.5 billion of subscription and support revenues for its fiscal 2022, the 12 months ended January 31, 2023.

Slack hasn't set out numbers on its daily active users since 2019, when it had 12 million+, but is estimated by more than one analyst to have around 18 to 20 million at present. This still lags Microsoft's Teams, which the Windows maker says has 280 million, although Slack has previously quibbled over its definition of "active."

A spokesperson at Slack sent us a statement about today's outage: "Our teams are aware and are investigating the issue. For the latest updates please keep an eye on status.slack.com." ®