Google's Gmail Suffers Service Disruption

By Sarah E. Needleman

Google's Gmail program suffered a service disruption Tuesday, creating headaches for users at a time when many people are relying more heavily than usual on email to communicate.

The disruption resulted in delays in the sending or receiving of email messages for about an hour. Just before noon EST, the company said in an online post that the matter "should be resolved" and that "system reliability is a top priority at Google."

A spokesperson didn't respond to requests for additional details after pointing to the post, including how many users and which markets were affected. The issue appears to have only affected Gmail and not Google's other messaging applications such as Google Hangout.

In recent weeks, scores of people have been staying home to minimize the spread of the new coronavirus. That has in turn bolstered reliance on email and other online messaging programs such as Slack. Gmail launched in 2004 and is one of the most popular email services that people, along with Microsoft Corp.'s Outlook.

Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 08, 2020 13:46 ET (17:46 GMT)

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