iMessage not working for thousands of Apple users Thursday

The latest: Apple's system status initially did not show iMessage or other services being down, but it said in an update about 7pm ET that some users had been affected and were unable to use this service as well as FaceTime.

The big picture: Over 13,000 iMessage outages were reported across the U.S. after 6pm ET, Downdetector shows.

• Widespread outages were also reported in Canada and the U.K.

The intrigue: While it's unclear what's behind the outages, some users have reported success getting texts out by resending them, per The Verge.

• Apple did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.

Editor's note: This article has been updated with details of Apple's system status update and of reports that some users had success in resending texts.