They were gonna text back. It's just that iMessage went down for almost an hour.

Apple's iMessage outage lasted nearly an hour on Thursday, sparking social media reactions and highlighting its integral role in US communication.

• iMessage, FaceTime, and HomeKit experienced outages for nearly an hour Thursday afternoon.
• The outages, rare for Apple services, affected many users from 2:49 pm to 3:35 pm PT.
• Android users mocked the iMessage outage, highlighting the ongoing Apple-Google rivalry.

You texted her and she didn't reply. Like, for a whole 30 minutes.

Don't worry. iMessage went down for almost an hour, so it's not you.

It's Apple.

On Thursday afternoon, the tech giant posted on its System Status dashboard that "Users were unable to use" iMessage, along with FaceTime and HomeKit.

The outages lasted from 2:49 p.m. to 3:35 p.m. Pacific Time, according to the update from Apple.

"apple ruining relationships by turning off iMessage," @onlydioria posted on X during the technical trouble.

It's extremely unusual for iMessage to go down like this. The service has become an integral part of the social fabric of the US, with teens who don't have iPhones agonizing over their green text bubbles not showing up properly in group messages.

Google, the company behind the Android smartphone platform, has been trying to coax Apple into scrapping this stressful form of social stigma. But, you know, blue bubbles sell iPhones, so no dice. Even the DOJ in it's antitrust lawsuit against Apple, zeroed in on the green vs. blue bubble stigma.

This didn't stop some Android phone users from mocking the iMessage outage on Thursday.

"imessage is down. embrace the green bubble," Phillip Lewis wrote on X.

Or, you could just try WhatsApp, which the rest of the world uses easily. That works on both iOS and Android. Incredible. It's like living in the future.