By Pascal Oparada, Social Media/Tech Reporter (With Agency Report)
On Tuesday, January 22, WhatsApp users all over the world grappled with sending and receiving messages through the premium messaging platform.
Nigeria, however, appeared to have escaped the downtime as many users were still able to use the app to send and receive messages.
Many users in the country wondered why they were not affected;
App monitoring platform, Down Detector, was bombarded with requests from users in Northern Europe, South America and some parts of the United Kingdom seeking to know what the issue was.
Those mostly hit are iPhone and Android users with the desktop and web versions still working
It was quickly fixed as Down Detector went from over a billion reports to zero within hours when WhatsApp stopped working.
Tech analysts say the scale witnessed yesterday was unprecedented in the history of the Facebook-owned platform, though it had witnessed minor downtime in the past, especially on November 6 and 29 2018.
Today, statistics from Down Detector show 44 per cent connectivity, sending and receiving messages at 40 per cent and log in at 15 per cent.
This means the issue has been largely solved.
Meanwhile, WhatsApp users in the country on Wednesday rejoiced that the messaging app did not crash on Tuesday contrary to what was experienced in some parts of the world.
The development manifested itself just a few hours after the messenger announced that it would be curbing the number of forwards for users worldwide.
However, it was observed that the app did not crash in Nigeria as many Twitter users claimed the app worked perfectly well for them throughout Tuesday.
Some Nigerians reacted to the development differently.
Some said the country’s President Muhammadu Buhari deserves a second term of office since we didn’t experience any crash.
“We are now the most powerful country in the world. What a time to be alive, “Wizz official tweeted.
Aquila_Olaniyi tweeted, “At least we can see the evidence of the prayer meetings we have been holding for Nigeria.
“Even, the Bible worked for us this time, Psalm 91:7 says, `A thousand shall crash at thy side and 10,000 at your right hand but it will not come near us, Oniyi said.
Nishant Kumar tweeted “Everybody checking on Twitter if Whatsapp is down, including me, reminds me of childhood days when everyone would check with neighbours to confirm a power cut.
“What a good day to be a Nigerian.’
Princewill Felix tweeted: “Nigeria WhatsApp is operating on very high-level encryption, reason why the app didn’t crash in Nigeria.
“In summary, Nigeria is the most secured cyberspace in the world, “he tweeted.
