Snapchat Down After Major AWS Outage Disrupts Millions of Users
Snapchat users woke up on October 20 to a frustrating surprise. The app stopped working completely due to a major Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage. Many couldn’t log in, send Snaps, or receive messages throughout the day.
According to Amazon, its cloud provider faced serious technical problems that disrupted thousands of services worldwide. The issue didn’t just affect Snapchat but also caused chaos for millions of users relying on AWS.
Cause Traced to AWS Hub
Reports of Snapchat’s problems first appeared on DownDetector around 3 a.m. ET (7 a.m. BST). At its peak, more than 22,000 users reported connection failures.
Experts later traced the issue to AWS’s US-EAST-1 region. This hub supports several major platforms on the U.S. East Coast. However, the impact quickly spread as many global apps depend on the same infrastructure.
Repairs and User Frustration
AWS engineers worked to restore services throughout the day. Despite several fixes, progress was slow, and full recovery took nearly an entire day. In the meantime, frustrated users flooded social media with complaints and memes.
Snapchat has since confirmed that its systems are back online. However, the incident raised concerns about heavy reliance on a few cloud regions for global connectivity.
As a result, many experts are calling for stronger backup systems to prevent similar disruptions in the future.
