Skype suffered an outage across the world today, but a fix is on its way

Video chats on hold

Update 9.36am (PST): It looks like Skype should soon be up and running again.

"We're pleased to say we've found and are now rectifying the Skype problem you may have had today," Skype tweeted.

And while the tweet also linked to its status page on its website, which explained that it has identified the issue, it didn't say when the issue will be completely resolved, just that it is in the process of restoring full service.

"We have identified the network issue which prevented users from logging in and using Skype today," the website reads.

"We're in the process of reconnecting our users, and focused on restoring full service."

It added that the issue did not affect Skype for Business users.

Original story...

If you're trying to Skype your boss or your grandma this lunchtime, it's likely that you're going to be running into problems: the platform is down all over the world.

It's a problem Skype has confirmed on its Twitter feed and its official support page.

Calls and status updates are affected, but instant messages should still work. Microsoft says all of your contacts are going to appear offline until it can work out a fix for the problem.

Down and out

The party line suggests "an issue with the status settings of Skype" is to blame.

A Microsoft spokesperson told techradar, "We are working hard to fix an issue which is preventing some users from logging in and using Skype. We apologise for any inconvenience and will keep our users updated."

One workaround is to use the recently launched web version of Skype, which was still working fine at the time of publication. Or there is always FaceTime or Google Hangouts.