Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

iMessage was down today, but it’s now back to normal

By Joe Maring Published May 23, 2023

Apple Messages opened on iPhone 13 Pro Max — Digital Trends / Digital Trends

Apple’s iMessage — one of the biggest reasons to use an iPhone — was having some trouble today.

Apple’s official System Status website confirmed that an iMessage issue began at 11:50 a.m. ET. The issue was listed as “ongoing” for multiple hours, with Apple noting that “users may be unable to send or download attachments in iMessage.”

Recommended Videos

A quick look at Down Detector further confirmed the problem, with people saying they were having trouble sending messages, using attachments, and receiving messages. I was unable to recreate the issues on my iPhone 14 Pro, but it’s clear that something was wrong.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Thankfully, it now appears that everything is back to normal! As of 2:20 p.m. ET, the status page for Apple indicates the issue is now resolved.

Other Apple apps also weren’t working

In addition to iMessage, Apple’s System Status page also listed ongoing issues for Apple Photos and iWork for iCloud. The Photos outage stated that it “may be slow or unavailable,” which was the same report for iWork, too.

These two outages were resolved at 2:05 p.m. ET and should also both be back to normal for everyone.

Service disruptions like this are never fun to deal with, but the problems (with this outage) appear to be behind us.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Joe Maring has been the Section Editor of Digital Trends' Mobile team since June 2022. He leads a team of 13 writers and…

Mobile

Behind the scenes of a Royal Caribbean cruise as captured by the iPhone 16 Pro

Captain Tobias, the skipper aboard Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas in December 2024 (captured on the iPhone 16 Pro)

Have you ever been on a cruise? I recently went on my first cruise, and it was on one of the biggest ships you'll find. The Allure of the Seas — the second in Royal Caribbean’s Oasis class and formerly the biggest cruise ship in the world — is effectively a floating town with a capacity for 5,400 passengers and 2,300 crew members.

The experience aside, the cruise also offered an opportunity to learn more about the inner workings of a Royal Caribbean ship. Considering the logistical operation required to ensure smooth sailing, it was an opportunity I couldn’t pas up.

Mobile

The next iPhone SE may get a surprising name change

iPhone SE (2022) held in a mans hand.

The iPhone SE 4 is the long-awaited next entry in the iPhone SE lineup. Information about the device has been scarce, with only a few bits of information leaking out here and there, but now there's a newer, more surprising rumor: that the name of the next iPhone SE might actually be the iPhone 16E.

The news first broke in mid-December from a source that's relatively unknown in the U.S. and was limited to just Weibo. Now, Majin Bu, a tipster with a much more solid track record, shared a post on X recently that supports the news.

Mobile

The good and bad of Apple Intelligence after using it on my iPhone for months

Apple Intelligence on iPhone 15 Pro.

Whether you love or hate it, AI doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon. In fact, AI is evolving quite rapidly, and it’s now in the palms of our hands with our smartphones, as Google, Samsung, and even Apple have now fully embraced our AI future.

Though Apple was late to the game with Apple Intelligence, the company majorly hyped it up for the iPhone 16 launch in September, even though, amazingly, it did not roll out until October with the iOS 18.1 update. The staggered release schedule for Apple Intelligence confused many consumers as to why they did not have Apple Intelligence immediately with their iPhone 16 purchases, and it felt like a big misstep from Apple.