How do we know a service is down?
We combine three things: reports from people like you, how those reports compare with what's normal for that time of day, and our own hourly check of each service's website.
Reports from people like you
When something isn't working, you can send a one-tap report. It tells us what's wrong, roughly where you are, and which internet or mobile provider you're on. Reports are anonymous unless you choose to add your name to a comment.
Compared with what's normal
Every service gets some reports, even on a normal day. We track the usual range for each hour and flag a problem only when reports rise well above that range, not just because a report came in.
Our own hourly checks
On top of reports, we load each service's website every hour from our own servers and record whether it responded and how fast. A service can be responding even during an outage that only affects one part of it, like video playback or sign-in, so we say the website is "responding," not "online," since that's exactly what we measured.
What our words mean
We say what we know. Reports are "reports," not "complaints." A service that responded to our check is "responding." We don't guess beyond what the data shows.