Skype problems: worldwide outage fixed

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Skype experienced major problems with its system on Monday and it affected millions of users across the globe. The company has since fixed the issue that crippled the messaging and voice call app in various ways. 

Before midnight of Sept. 22 GMT (or Sept. 21 at 8 p.m. EST), Skype posted that its services had been completely restored. 

Yesterday, Skype users all over the world, including those in Japan, United Kingdom, and Australia reported issues surrounding the app. Skype's downtime caused the failed delivery of instant messages to group chats. Those who were trying to access their accounts also had a hard time doing so. 

In addition, the main problem appeared to involve people's status, which showed a user to be offline despite being logged on. As a result, a user could not call other Skype users despite being connected.

However, there were some users who could still send instant messages to their contacts amidst the issue.

During the system failure, complaints about the call and messaging app flooded the social media beginning at 2 a.m. EST on Sept. 21, as reported in the Wall Street Journal.

Skype support service did acknowledge the concern then via Twitter and informed the public that it was working on a solution.

The Skype team made the announcement via Skype Heartbeat and also added that the system problem did not affect users of Skype for Business.

In a later post, the company then announced that the problem had been identified. Skype also issued an apology for the inconvenience the app had caused.

Microsoft bought Skype back in 2011 and the app now has an estimated 300 million active users per month. Over 600 million users worldwide have a registered Skype account.

Despite the arrival of several competitors in the face of Viber, WhatsApp, and Google Hangout, among others, Skype has maintained a strong user base.