Google services restored after global outage

On Thursday morning, several Indian users took to Twitter and complained of issues they were facing with Google services such as Gmail, Docs, Drive and Meet. Google’s email client wasn’t letting users send emails or attach files. However, after a few hours of the outage, the services were restored for all users.

The global tech giant apologised for the rather long global outage which affected professionals around the world. "We apologise for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support," the company said.

"System reliability is a top priority at Google. We are making continuous improvements to make our systems better," the company said in a statement.

Earlier, tracking website DownDetector had reported that Google services were down in every continent and that the outage was global.

Users reported glitches with not just Gmail but also Google Drive and said that they are unable to upload or download the files.

By mid-afternoon on Thursday, Google had managed to fix the issue for quite a few users but left others with the hope of issues being fixed in ‘near future’.

The number of users reporting issues with Gmail peaked at 12:00pm with 2,737 complaints logged on DownDetector. "Gmail sending issues. Meet recording issues. Creating files issues in Drive, CSV user upload issues in Admin Console. Posting message issues in Google Chat. Sites adding new pages issues. Keep issues. Voice mail issues," noted Google.
Though Google issued an apology, it didn’t offer any explanation as to why the services were down. This is the second time in two months that widespread issues with Gmail have been reported. In July, several users had faced issues with logging into their Gmail accounts which were subsequently fixed by Google.

With the majority of the world’s population working from home, such an outage can have a major impact on the functioning of workplaces.

Last week, Google had introduced a new, refurbished interface for its G Suite customers, with a more organised layout and dedicated tabs for Chat, Room, Meet and Mail. The revamp came after Google announced last month that it would turn Gmail for G Suite into an all-encompassing hub for its productivity platforms.

Gmail@15: 15GB Storage, Smart Replies, Priority Inboxes

Autoplay
1 of 8

A 15-Year-Long Legacy

Google's email platform Gmail turns 15 today. Created by Paul Buchheit on April 1, 2004, the service has lived a non-controversial life and has displayed impressive growth over the years.

From offering 1 gigabyte storage per user to boosting it up to 15 gigabytes combined with the ability to attach large files through Google Drive, Gmail built a strong legacy in its ongoing tenure.

The service, which continues to be free of cost for users, is now a paid suite for enterprise products and has introduced remarkable updates over the years. However, there's a lot to its story.

As Gmail turns 15, here's a look at its journey of becoming the most popular email platform.