Apple's cloud messaging service, iMessage and FaceTime suffered a complete shut down for nearly five hours before it was reinstated. The reason for the shut down remains unknown, according to a report from CNet news.
The service interruption was caused just in noon PT (3:11 p.m. ET and 8pm BST), and Apple users were not able to use both iMessage and FaceTime services for more than five hours. Users received a red exclamation mark with an error message when they tried sending messages over Apple's communication networks.
Apple's iMessage is a service where users can send encrypted messages to iOS devices and also send text messages to other operating systems. FaceTime is the company's live video chat service which operates between iOS and OS X users.
While Apple's service webpage reported that only "some" users were affected by the shut down, users on Twitter had a different story to tell. Hundreds of users send in a string of tweets reporting that the two messaging services were down.
Many users speculated that the outage was due to an attack from North Korea and expressed their anger even though they were still able to send normal text messages.
One user said, "My iMessage is down... Now I'm stuck sending normal text messages like a common peasant."
"Since iMessage is down, it looks like I'll be sending my messages via carrier pigeon again," joked another twitter user.
"My iMessage being down is very similar to that feeling of walking up behind three guys and somehow not killing any of them," tweeted another user.
While the services seem to be up and running now, the cause of the outrage still remains unknown.
