Slack restores user connections after unexpected outage hits platform

Slack is down for users around the world. The company behind the platform is investigating but there’s no official word yet on what caused the disruption.

Matthew Elmas 13 May, 2020

Slack says it has restored full service to users after the messaging platform suffered an unexpected outage on Wednesday morning.

Users of the popular workplace communications tool began reporting connectivity issues at around 10:00am Australian eastern time on Wednesday.

Several hours later, the company posted an update saying service had been restored, but provided no explanation for what caused the outage.

“We’re very sorry for the disruption. We appreciate your patience as we worked to get everyone back online,” Slack said in a statement posted to its status page.

Everyone should be able to connect to Slack now. If you have any further trouble, please let us know at feedback@slack.com. Apologies again for the interruption to your work. We appreciate you sticking with us.

— Slack (@SlackHQ) May 13, 2020

The US-based company had been gradually restoring connectivity to users since initial reports started flowing through, with thousands taking to social media to report issues with the platform.

Slack, saying users had reported “general performance issues”, initially said customers were unable to send messages, while photos posted to Twitter show the web portal and desktop app were offline for some people.

New beta version of slack… encourages work-life balance & going for walks. Not loving it tbh #slack pic.twitter.com/aAnKPt1gLi

— Shelly-Ann (@shellzor88) May 13, 2020