The key facts

  • The outage affected Outlook, Teams and Copilot in more than 70 countries
  • Microsoft said its fixes are 'not working as expected'
  • 'Microsoft' became the most popular topic on the internet amid a wave of user jokes

What Happened

Microsoft services — the Outlook email client, the Teams messenger and the AI assistant Copilot — experienced a large-scale outage. The problems first appeared on Thursday, according to the Downdetector monitoring website, and were recorded in more than 70 countries, affecting millions of users worldwide.

The Company Admits: Fixes Are Not Working

Microsoft continues to post updates on the situation, but said that the changes made to resolve the outage are 'not working as expected.' No exact timeline for restoring the services was provided.

User Reaction

Amid the outage, 'Microsoft' became the most discussed topic on the internet. Users joked en masse about the situation: some suggested that engineers 'take their time' and take a long weekend, others compared the Office failure to 'a snow day for adults,' or advised, like Kelly Rowland, sending emails via Excel. There were also sharper comments — including ones about the company's recent announcement of a 25% staff reduction.