Outages are a common problem with cloud-based software solutions – but that doesn’t make them any less frustrating. That’s something that Slack users discovered first-hand this Monday the 5th of October, when Slack suffered a serious outage.
The collaboration tool – now a critical part of the technology stack for many remote workers – went down on Monday morning. The problem lasted well into the afternoon hours, with thousands of users unable to receive or send messages. Twitter exploded with unhappy commentary from users, alongside memes from workers unable to stay connected to their team.
Slack right now #SLACKDOWN pic.twitter.com/sfkykxlAuB
— Lydia (@LydGiggs) October 5, 2020
As usual, Slack responded to the problems shortly after reports began to surface in the morning hours. They shared that the issue was improving, but that some users would still be experiencing problems.
What Happened to Slack?
The Down Detector website showed the outage starting at around 9:30 am. The problem seemed largely focused on the US, with parts of Europe also facing issues.
This isn’t the first issue that customers have had with collaboration tools since the start of the pandemic. Microsoft Teams recently faced problems of its own, with various Microsoft tools, including Teams, Outlook, and Office 365 going down last week.
Unfortunately, today’s collaborators can’t afford to face regular issues with their team tools in a world where these apps are the only way to stay connected to coworkers. Slack and tools like it are essential to companies struggling to continue working during the coronavirus pandemic.
With the stress of Monday morning to worry about, the last thing Slack users needed was issues with their messaging service.
Slack addressed the problem officially at around 10:05 am ET on its website, stating that “some users” may be having problems with slow responses on Slack mobile, browser, and desktop applications. Slack also noted that the issue might be affecting API calls and sending messages.
Hours out of Commission
It wasn’t until around 1:41 pm on Monday (ET) that Slack said it was seeing signs of improvement with the outage, though some customers were still experiencing issues. The problem was so significant that “Slack” became a trending topic on Twitter yesterday.
Frustrated users claimed that they could have stayed in bed all day if they had known that they wouldn’t be able to “go to work” with Slack not working. Other customers commented that they had only been online for a few minutes before their workday was over.
Down Detector showed that many of the issues customers had involved connecting to Slack services and sending messages. Slack link previews, notes messaging, files, login, and search functions all struggled to operate in the outage. Many people also experienced problems with Slack connectors and apps.
Slack didn’t reveal exactly how many customers were experiencing these issues, although Down Detector showed nearly 2000 reports on Monday morning. The issues continued for around 6 hours in total for some users. At 4:41 pm ET, Slack finally announced on the @SlackStatus Twitter page that things should be “working as expected.”
We’re happy to report Slack should be working as expected as of 1:41 p.m. PDT. We’re sorry for the trouble. Thanks for your patience today. https://t.co/7hFKxXV7Dd
— Slack Status (@SlackStatus) October 5, 2020
