Workplace messaging app Slack hit by outage on 1st business day of 2021

JAN. 4, 2021 


The logo for Slack hung outside of the New York Stock Exchange to celebrate its initial public offering on June 20, 2019. File photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo


Jan. 4 (UPI) -- The popular messaging app Slack, heavily used by remote workers, was hit with a service outage Monday as employees reported to work for the first time in 2021.

"Customers may have trouble loading channels or connecting to Slack at this time," the app's managers wrote in a message to users 10:15 a.m. EST.


The app was down for more than two hours during the first major workday of the year, but by 12:30 p.m., service to at least some users had been restored.

"While the issue is largely still ongoing, we believe some customers may see improvement in connecting to Slack after a refresh (CTRL/CMD + R)," the company wrote on its service status page.

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The Downdector website fielded 15,000 reports of Slack going offline at 10 a.m.

The messaging app, made by San Francisco-based Slack Technologies Inc., has emerged as an important workplace tool during the COVID-19 pandemic as millions of employees are forced to work from home.

The company was purchased last year by Salesforce.com Inc. for nearly $28 billion. Since then, its stock has jumped by 80% due to the upsurge in work-from-home tools.

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Its outage produced bemused comments from social media users, some of whom seemed anxious to extend the holiday weekend.

"If Slack is down for 15 minutes, the workday is canceled. I don't make the rules," wrote Twitter user Chris Albon.

"Slack being down on the morning we all return to work feels like 2021 promising it will be a bit kinder to us all," tweeted Jarett Wieselman.