LOS ANGELES >> WhatsApp, the messaging app Facebook is buying for $19 billion, is having technical trouble.

The service went down for several hours Saturday afternoon. Associated Press reporters noticed that the app wasn’t functioning starting at about noon PST.

Neither WhatsApp nor Facebook responded to emails seeking comment.

On Twitter, a verified WhatsApp Inc. account did not mention the problem, but an unverified account called WhatsApp Status said the service was experiencing server issues and it hoped to be back up shortly.

Service outages are common for rapidly growing technology companies, and the WhatsApp Status account has tweeted about an outage about once a month going back through May.

WhatsApp, launched in 2009, has 450 million users globally. Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg predicts it will reach 1 billion in a few years.