Videoconferencing giant Zoom experienced widespread outages this morning, with users in the US and UK reporting problems joining video calls, but service has now been restored.
DownDetector showed outages beginning in North America and some parts of Europe from around 9AM ET, with Zoom’s status page reporting problems with users joining meetings and webinars. At around 11AM ET, the company said it was “deploying a fix” and around 12.15PM ET it updated its status page to note that all systems are fully operational again.
The company thanked users for their patience in a tweet, and noted that it was having some residual problems with customers signing up for paid accounts and upgrading accounts.
It’s never good for a major service like Zoom to go down, of course, but videoconferencing software has become integral to life during the pandemic. A search for complaints on Twitter shows lots of people were annoyed about missing meetings and classes because of the outage. It also shows lots of people overjoyed about missing meetings and classes. It is a Monday, after all, and sometimes a last minute reprieve is all you’re hoping for.
The advice we previously offered upon learning that Zoom was down (“Go! Run to the hills! Leave this life for good and never come back!”) has now been formally rescinded. Please return to your homes and home offices. You have a meeting at the top of the hour.