Slack returns after major outage but performance degraded

Firm says it is investigating the issue. Picture: Kiichiro Sato/AP

Business communication platform Slack has returned to service after experiencing technical issues across the world as many office employees resume working from home after the Christmas break.

Firms have become dependent on services such as Slack during the pandemic, as well as rivals Microsoft Teams and Zoom.

The outage affected all parts of the company’s platform on Monday, leaving some users unable to send or receive messages to colleagues.

Slack, which was acquired by US software giant SalesForce at the beginning of December, wrote on Twitter: “Customers may be experiencing issues connecting and using Slack at this time.

“Our team is currently investigating and we’re sorry for any troubles this may be causing.”

By 5.30pm, the company’s service status page said: “While the issue is largely still ongoing, we believe some customers may see improvement in connecting to Slack after a refresh.”

Full instructions on refreshing the communications platform can be found at the tech company's status page.

A message from the company on the site said: "Customers may have trouble connecting to or using Slack.

"For any customers unable to access Slack, please refresh using CMD/CTRL + SHIFT + O. If you encounter any trouble, please let us know at [e-mail].

"We'll have a separate post on this site for the outstanding calendar apps and email notifications trouble.

"We're truly sorry for the disruption today. We'll be back with a summary of this issue.

People affected by the issue also reported the problem on downdetector.co.uk with 63% sharing problems connecting, while 35% mentioned errors sending messages.

-with reporting from Press Association