Amazon Alexa down: virtual assistant is experiencing technical difficulties

Users in the UAE have also reported issues with the service

Amazon's Alexa seems to be experiencing technical problems. Bloomberg

Users around the world have noticed that Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa seems to be experiencing technical difficulties.

According to Downdetector, Amazon and Alexa started experiencing a spike in issues at around 11am on Friday in the UAE. Users around the globe – including the UAE, UK and Europe – have reported a number of problems with the service.

Patchy coverage, devices showing as offline, slow responses and answers such as, “Sorry, I am having trouble. Please try in a little while,” have been widespread.

The malfunction has led to memes and posts on social media, with users claiming they cannot turn off their alarm clocks, switch on their lights or ask the device to tell them the temperature outside.

This is not the first time there has been an Alexa outage. The situation last occurred in December, although it was limited to parts of the US. In 2018, there was another outage experienced worldwide.

For those that rely on Alexa's wisdom, the good news is that Amazon tends to overcome technical difficulties quite quickly. So it’s hopefully only a matter of time until people can start commanding their robot helpers to turn off alarms and switch on lights once again.