Google DOWN: Global tech meltdown as Gmail, Google Maps, Youtube, Google Meet all CRASH

Google services have gone down for users across the globe. The Californian search company is experiencing issues with a huge number of its platforms, including YouTube, video call service Google Meet, or ask questions to their Google Nest smart speakers, including the Nest Hub and Google Nest Mini. Gmail – one of the most popular email services on the planet with an eye-watering 1.5 billion users worldwide – is also suffering from the same outage, with users unable to send or receive messages, or chat using G chat or Hangouts. You can read more about the issues impacting Gmail users here.

It’s unclear exactly what is causing the problems, which have also impacted the likes of Google Calendar, Google Classroom (the education suite used by thousands of schools) and Google Maps. Outages with Google services are pretty rare, thankfully. And there might never have been one on this scale before.

However, whenever they do occur they cause a huge amount of chaos due to the sheer number of services that rely on Google products, from restaurants that use embedded Google Maps to help customers find their location to food delivery services, couriers trying to deliver a deluge of Christmas parcels, as well as schools and workplaces that use Google web apps to organise meetings. The outage is also affecting video games, like the immensely-successful Pokémon Go, which uses Google Maps technology to power its gameplay.

Independent service DownDetector, which tracks the performance of online services using mentions from across social media, shows a large spike in complaints about all Google services in the UK, mainland Europe and parts of the United States. According to the website, more than 23,000 people are complaining about Gmail not working every minute in the UK alone. According to data from DownDector, more than 40,000 people are experiencing difficulties with YouTube right now.

So, if you’re unable to connect to YouTube, plan a route on Google Maps, check your upcoming appointments on Google Calendar, or call a colleague using Google Meet – you’re far from alone. Unfortunately, despite the sheer number of complaints being filed by users every minute, Google has yet to explain why the problems have occurred.

It also hasn’t revealed when those who rely on Google online services can expect to be able to get back to work, school, or killing time watching ASMR videos on YouTube…

The problems seemingly started around 11:45am GMT, according to the data gathered by DownDetector. The reports of problems soon spiked. Interestingly, it doesn’t seem like any one service encountered the issues before the others… with all Google properties going offline for tends of thousands at the same time. Enterprise customers, education users, as well as consumers who rely on Google apps to plan their time or run a small business, were all impacted at midday when reports surged across the globe.

This is a breaking news story. Please refresh the webpage for the most up-to-date version – we’re updating with new information all of the time. More to follow…