Facebook -owned WhatsApp is currently down, with users unable to send or receive messages on the end-to-end encrypted messaging app.

Affected users might see that WhatsApp is “connecting” to the service when trying to send a message. The outage started at about 4pm ET. We don’t know much more at this stage.

WhatsApp failing to connect to its servers. (Image: TechCrunch)

A spokesperson for Facebook did not immediately comment on the outage. We’ll update when we know more.

WhatsApp hit the 2 billion user mark earlier this year. Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014 in what became one of the social media giant’s biggest purchases.