Google Meet down as users see '502 error': What's causing the outage?

Google Meet users across India faced trouble joining calls as a '502 error' appeared on screens; most complaints were about website glitches and server issues

Google Meet users across India experienced a major disruption on Wednesday, with thousands reporting problems while trying to access the platform. Data from Downdetector.in showed a sudden surge in outage reports, crossing nearly 2,000 complaints within a short period.

 

What users are complaining about?

 

According to Downdetector.in, 66 per cent of users flagged website-related glitches during the outage. Another 32 per cent struggled with server connection issues, while 2 per cent reported poor video quality.

 

The disruption affected several major cities, with large clusters of outages seen in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai and Ahmedabad.

 

'502. That’s an error' message appears

 

Many people attempting to join meetings said they were greeted with the message, “502. That’s an error”. Users shared screenshots on X and expressed frustration as the problem spread across the country.

 

As the platform went down, users took to X to share their experiences. One user wrote, “google meet crashed before my will to work did”. Another posted, “Google meet is down for everyone in my org but not for me.”

 

A third user asked, “Google meet is down!! Why every big tech is going down this month?”

 

Why the 502 error appears

 

Google Meet is a video communication platform that allows people to host and join virtual meetings. It is widely used for online classes, remote interviews and virtual training sessions. The service supports more than 65 languages with translated captions.

 

A 502 error on Google Meet is a “Bad Gateway” message. It appears when Google’s servers, or the systems connecting users to the platform, fail to respond properly.

 

A 502 error means:

• It is an HTTP 502 status code, meaning a server acting as a gateway or proxy got an invalid response from another (upstream) server.

• The issue is usually on the server side (e.g., overloaded or misconfigured server, network/DNS issues between servers), not with your device

• Google Meet’s servers are facing problems

• The platform cannot load or connect to a meeting at that moment