Advertisement

Facebook bug caused widespread outages on top iOS apps

The streaming service is experiencing an outage - Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
The streaming service is experiencing an outage - Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Some of the world’s biggest apps including Spotify, Pinterest, and Tinder were hit with outages on iPhones on Friday.

The apps were repeatedly crashing on devices with iOS, Apple’s mobile operating system, installed on them.

It appeared that Facebook’s software development kit (SDK) was to blame for the outages. The social media giant’s SDK is used by app developers to allow users to log in.

High volumes of outages were reported on DownDetector.com. More than 12,000 issues were reported with Spotify, while 2,333 reports were filed by Pinterest users. Another 160 issues were reported with dating app Tinder.

The issue, which caused apps to crash instantly when opened, has since been solved.

Android users have yet to report similar crashes with its app.

Facebook said it was “aware and investigating” the issue with its SDK and said that there had been an “increase in errors on iOS” that had caused some apps to crash.

One work around for users was switching their iPhones to Airplane mode and turning off their wifi. Once completely disconnected the crashing apps would work in offline mode.

Facebook and Apple had yet to respond to the Telegraph at the time of writing.

The Verge reported a similar outage occurred on May 6 that also was a result of Facebook’s SDK.

The social media giant urges developers to use its SDK for logins, which allows Facebook access to app user data. The login kit works as a win-win for both parties given it improves the pace of logins.

However, as a result of its widespread usage, issues with the SDK can cause widespread outages.