A severe technical issue has occurred on Instagram, creating extensive disruptions for users attempting to send direct messages (DMs) on the app. According to Downdetector, which monitors service outages, the issues began around 5 p.m. on Tuesday, with over 2,000 reports filed by dissatisfied users.
Many users have turned to competing social media platforms, notably X (previously Twitter), to voice their concerns and confirm that others are having similar problems. “Did you ignore your DM? No, I did not!! “Instagram is down!!,” one concerned user tweeted. Someone else joked, “Me opening Twitter to see if Instagram is down for everyone or just me.”
Additional reports raised concerns with message delivery, with one user noting, “Messages are not delivering and show ‘failed to deliver’ after a few minutes. Is anyone else experiencing this?
Another user, who mistook this for his internet problem, stated, “I recharged my messages that weren’t sending, came to X, and discovered it was Instagram’s issue.”
As the outage continues, neither Instagram nor its parent company, Meta, has issued an official statement on the cause of the disturbance. Users are recommended to monitor the Instagram status page and Downdetector for updates as they wait for a resolution.
This event comes after a similar outage earlier this month when both Facebook and Instagram experienced significant outages affecting thousands of people across the United States. At the time, there were over 12,000 Facebook-related reports and over 5,000 Instagram reports. Downdetector and other artificial intelligence systems rely on user-submitted reports, thus the true number of affected people could be significantly higher.