WhatsApp service resumes after outage

Popular messaging app WhatsApp says that its users around the world were unable to access its service for a brief period, but that access for its one billion daily users has since resumed.

The outage was most acute in northern Europe and Brazil but lasted less than an hour, according to downdetector.com, which tracks disruptions across telecommunications services.

California-based WhatsApp, which Facebook Inc purchased for $US19 billion ($A27 billion) in 2014, is among the most popular messaging services in the world.