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A massive spike
The huge number of reports surfacing this morning on DownDetector shows the extent of this morning’s problems. While the reports are falling now, at their peak around 3.50 a.m. ET / 8.50 a.m. BST, the reports were up at 22,762.
C14A: Service unavailable
Trying to log into Snapchat this morning results in a C14A: Service unavailable error message which is internet speak for the app being unavailable to make a connection with its servers. Since Amazon Web Services is also experiencing a huge outage this morning, the two are clearly linked.
Snapchat service will likely resume as soon as Amazon is able to fix whatever its problem is.
What other services are affected?
Snapchat is far from the only service experiencing problems today as a result of the AWS outage. As you can see from the graphic above, the likes of Roblox, Fortnite and Ring are also experiencing issues.
Payment platform Venmo, trading app Robinhood and streaming service Crunchyroll are also hit. Other victims include the McDonald’s app for some users and the Lyft ridesharing service.
Today’s problems highlight that while the internet is home to millions of different brands and services, a lot of the technical or discovery infrastructure rests with a few all-powerful companies. And when something goes wrong for them, it gets bad quickly.
How big is Snapchat?
Snapchat may not get mentioned in the same breath as Facebook, Instagram or TikTok, but it’s still one of the largest social media platforms on the planet. The app launched back in 2011 and quickly became well-known for its disappearing snaps. A feature that was quickly copied by rivals.
Fast-forward to 2025 and it’s added a huge number of new features, launched hardware in the form of Snapchat Spectacles and has hundreds of millions of active users around the world.
According to some of the latest stats I could find, Snapchat has around 932 million monthly active users (MAU) and 469 million daily active users (DAU) as of October 2025. That’s a lot of people potentially affected by today’s outage.
What are the most affected areas?
Unsurprisingly, a lot of the reports of problems are coming from cities where there are more users. The likes of Los Angeles and San Francisco are reporting major problems (despite the fact it’s currently 2 a.m. PT at time of writing) but also New York, Chicago, Minneapolis and Dallas. I’m writing to you from London in the U.K., which is also affected.
Amazon, meanwhile, has acknowledged problems affecting “multiple AWS services” particularly in the US-East-1 (Northern Virginia) region, which is a central hub for a lot of its cloud customers.
Due to the structure of the web, even databases not located in that region can experience knock-on problems as whatever the issue is cascades down to related services.
Amazon investigating ‘increased error rates and latencies’
Amazon has acknowledged the problems causing today’s Snapchat outage on its AWS service-health page and says it is seeing “increased error rates and latencies”.
The company says it has investigated the cause of the issue and believes it to be “related to DNS resolution of the DynamoDB API endpoint in US-EAST-1.”
Amazon states: “We are working on multiple parallel paths to accelerate recovery. This issue also affects other AWS Services in the US-EAST-1 Region. Global services or features that rely on US-EAST-1 endpoints such as IAM updates and DynamoDB Global tables may also be experiencing issues”
You can’t have a global internet issue come up without some kind of input from Elon Musk. But the billionaire owner of X.com is being remarkably self-contained at the implosion of Snapchat this morning. He posted a tweet saying simply: “X works.”
It might seem like he’s being pithy but, since taking the reigns at X.com, Musk has indicated a need to move away from major public cloud providers like AWS. This isn’t simply for robustness in the event of an outage like today. It’s also do with cutting costs. X.com, like Snapchat and many other services, pay an eye-watering amount of money each year to utilize AWS.
Reports are falling fast — is this a good sign?
Over the last hour, the reports of problems at Snapchat seem to be falling fast over at DownDetector. At the time of writing (5.30 a.m. ET / 10.30 a.m. BST) the reports have fallen below 10,000 from a peak of over 22,000.
Despite this, many millions of people will still be seeing issues and I’m still unable to log in to Snapchat myself here in London. Rather than a specific error code, my app is now just displaying the standard “Something went wrong. Please try again later” message.
Amazon is currently investigating the AWS issues so while things may be improving, we’re definitely not out of the woods yet.
We tried Snapchat’s upcoming smart glasses
This may be an appropriate time to tell you that, apart from letting you send pictures and messages to your friends, Snapchat is actually working pretty hard on the next evolution of its business. We can’t really blame the company for today’s outage — that’s Amazon’s fault — but it is a good opportunity to tell you about what we saw.
Last month, our Managing Editor, Computing, Jason England, got to try out the first significant consumer-friendly update in Snap OS 2.0 that will run on the upcoming consumer Snap Specs set to launch next year.
Snap is going to try and marry AR with AI in these new glasses, which come with dual Snapdragon processors, four cameras (two of them being infrared computer vision), stereo speakers and a six-microphone array. Want to know more about them? Check out Jason’s full story right here.
Amazon claims the outage has been fixed
Amazon has updated its AWS health status page to say the cause of the issue has been fixed and the remainder of the outage will be over as soon as it has processed the backlog of requests.
“We are seeing significant signs of recovery,” the company wrote at 2.27 a.m. PT / 5.37 a.m. ET / 10.30 a.m. BST.
“Most requests should now be succeeding. We continue to work through a backlog of queued requests. We will continue to provide additional information.”
Snapchat Support isn’t really helping…
Anyone hoping for a serious answer from Snapchat itself about today’s issues will probably need to lower their expectations. During the course of today’s outage, frustrated users have reached out on X.com to ask the company for advice on why they aren’t able to log into their account.
From the looks of things, the automated account is simply responding with the same cut and paste message to everyone: “Hi there! Thanks for letting us know. We’re always working to improve the Snapchat experience on both platforms. Please keep an eye on your device’s app store for new updates! In the meantime, we’ll share the info you provided with our team.”
Hi there! Thanks for letting us know. We’re always working to improve the Snapchat experience on both platforms. Please keep an eye on your device’s app store for new updates! In the meantime, we’ll share the info you provided with our team.October 20, 2025
Reports fall under 5,000 on DownDetector
In a further sign that things are returning to normal, reports on DownDetector have now fallen to under 5,000. This puts today’s current outage at nearly three-and-a-half hours so far and, while there may be lingering problems for some, most users should start seeing regular service resume.
Snapchat hasn’t posted anything directly itself, but Amazon Web Services has given the following update: “We continue to work towards full resolution and will provide updates as we have more information to share.”
All the sites and services affected by today’s AWS outage
While the internet is slowly coming back online now, events like this reveal just how pivotal Amazon Web Services is to the functioning of the web. Snapchat may have been one of the biggest services, but it was far from the only massive brand to see a blackout this morning.
“When AWS sneezes, half the internet catches the flu. Outages like this cause frustrated users, but also triggers a domino effect across payment flows,” Monica Eaton, Founder and CEO of Chargebacks911 and Fi911 commented. “Failed authorizations, duplicate charges, broken confirmation pages, all of that fuels a wave of disputes that merchants will be cleaning up for weeks. And once a customer files a dispute, you are already on the back foot.”
Here’s a list of all the services affected:
- Amazon (including Alexa and Prime Video)
- Apple Music
- Blink
- Chime
- Coinbase
- Delta
- Duolingo
- Epic Games Store
- Fanduel
- Fortnite
- HBO Max
- Hinge
- Life 360
- Lyft
- McDonalds app
- Microsoft Teams
- My Fitness Pal
- Office 365
- PlayStation Network
- Pokemon Go
- Ring
- Roblox
- Roku
- Signal
- Slack
- Snapchat
- Square
- Starbucks
- Steam
- Strava
- Ubisoft Connect
- Venmo
- VR Chat
- Wordle
- Xbox
- Xero
- Zoom
Snapchat is back up and running (for me, at least)
I’ve been checking my own Snapchat account throughout today’s outage and, from the looks of things, everything is back to normal. I was able to load up the app, browse Snapchat Stories and the Snap Map as well as send messages.
It wasn’t a flawless experience and load times did seem to be a bit more laggy than usual but the app was certainly usable.
“Fix your app”
I mentioned earlier that Snapchat’s Twitter Support was copying and pasting the same message to affected users. It seems like things have improved somewhat with some more personalised responses asking users still experiencing problems to DM the support team.
But, bizarrely, the account still has a pinned message from June 12 at the top of its feed stating the issue has been fixed…
Users aren’t pulling punches, either. X user Kimberlyy_2004 says bluntly: “fix your app everyone has the same C14A issue.”
If Kimberlyy_2004 is reading this, there isn’t a lot that Snapchat can do until the AWS issue is fully resolved and the backlog has been served. Apart from improve their Twitter communication, that is.
A second spike??
Uh-oh, this doesn’t look good. Just as I was ready to call it quits on today’s outage, DownDetector is seeing a second spike for Snapchat-related problems.
Now, this could be because East Coast users are beginning to come online and are finding that teething problems with AWS are keeping them from using the app. Or it could be that there are more problems than we first thought and more issues are occurring.
From a dip of under 5,000 reports, DownDetector is now showing nearly 7,000 as we approach 8 a.m. ET / 1 p.m. BST. I’ll keep monitoring the situation to bring you the latest updates.
People are worried about their Snapchat Streaks
If the Snapchat outage lasts long enough, are people in danger of losing their Streaks? A few users have voiced concerns about this on X.com, and while I don’t think it’ll come to this, it’s an interesting question to pose.
Snapchat is down ke?Nothing must happen to my 1000 streak o 😭October 20, 2025
A Snapchat Streak is the same retention tactic you’ll find in other apps. When two people Snap back and forth with each other at least once a day, every day, they’re on a Streak. Once any user has kept it up long enough to start a Streak, they’ll see a fire emoji on the Chat screen.
If the problems with Snapchat persist beyond 24 hours then it’s entirely likely a lot of Streaks will vanish. The app would then likely have to decide if it was able to put the Streaks back in place once normal service has resumed.
It’s worth pointing this out because another app famous for its usage streaks, Duolingo, is also seeing major problems today as a result of the AWS outage.
You thought it was over?
I have to admit, I’m right there with you in thinking the worst was behind. But suddenly, after taking a sharp downturn, the reports are on the rise again. Currently hovering at just over 10,000 Down Detector reports, it’s looking like this outage isn’t ready to let up anytime soon.
Hopefully, this second rise in reports is just a quick blip and the slow return of AWS gets Snapchat back into a properly working state so everyone can keep those precious streaks alive.
How big is this AWS outage?
To give you a little perspective, this outage was huge, expanding far beyond Snapchat. According to a BBC report, Down Detector said it saw more than 6.5 million user reports across more than 1,000 companies.
Obviously, this draws some concern with how much of the internet relies on AWS. One outage taking down 1,000 companies isn’t a good thing for anyway.
It’s all fun and games…
Today is my first day at AWS.I noticed a small bug in DynamoDB clustering implementation and I think I fixed it.Shipped to prod already.Going to make a coffee and will check back if everything is working.October 20, 2025
Everyone has jokes. Almost every time there’s a significant outage, someone goes viral with almost that exact post seen above. And you know what? I still chuckled.
How are you keeping yourself busy during the Snapchat outage?
With Snapchat being out of commission for this long, you’ve probably switched to one of the best Snapchat alternatives to keep the conversations with friends and loved ones going. So we want to know: which app are you using? Hit the poll above and sound off.
Still staying steady
Currently, Snapchat is still hanging out with around 10,000 reports on Down Detector. It spiked a little and then quickly leveled off. While some other services are starting to recover, Snapchat seems a little slower to be fixed.
Snapchat says: ‘we’re looking into it’
Snapchat has finally commented on today’s outage. Sort of.
The Snapchat Support profile on X has issued a brief statement to its 900k followers: “We’re aware that some Snapchatters are having issues – hang tight, we’re looking into it.”
Which is a pretty low-key acknowledgement if I’m being honest. Today’s problems started around seven hours ago when the first reports started to come through that users were unable to log into the platform. Now that the issue has seemingly been fixed at the source, we’re not sure why Snapchat’s users are continuing to see problems.
We’re aware that some Snapchatters are having issues – hang tight, we’re looking into it!October 20, 2025
If you thought AWS was fixed, well…
We know at this point that AWS is behind the ups and downs for Snapchat today, and while Amazon said it had solved the problem, that may have been premature.
The latest update from Amazon, posted about 10 minutes ago reads: “We have confirmed multiple AWS services experienced network connectivity issues in the US-EAST-1 Region. We are seeing early signs of recovery for the connectivity issues and are continuing to investigate the root cause.”
If you’ve been following this live blog, you’ll know the US-EAST-1 Region was the site of the initial disruption seven hours ago. It was deemed to be fixed, but apparently, that’s not the case. So hang tight folks, because we may have a few more hours to go yet.
Snapchat reports are heading down again, but AWS issues are spiking
Reports on DownDetector are falling back down to below 10,000 again after a second spike.
Which is interesting, because if we look over at AWS reports on DownDetector, the reports there have surpassed the initial spike. The previous peak was around 6,000, and now it’s up to 6,400. So while Snapchat users may be seeing some recovery, other apps are likely to start experiencing continued outages. For example, payment platform Venmo is currently seeing a huge spike in reports.
The internet is having a bad day.
Uh oh! Venmo appears to have gone down
Just as things looked like they were headed in a downward direction, Venmo is suddenly having issues with nearly 8,000 reports on Down Detector.
We’re going to track that separately and I’ll put a link here once we have that article ready.
Meanwhile, Snapchat was decreasing but has been holding steady around 8,000 reporrts as well since 7 A.M. Pacific.
The overreliance on single systems
Today’s multi-app and site outage is a reminder of how interconnected everything is and how dependent the entire system is on a small number of companies (monopolies or close to it are bad kids).
Rob van Lubek, EMEA Vide President of Dynatrace spoke to Tom’s Guide about this issue in a comment to Tom’s Guide.
“Global incidents like this are a clear reminder of how dependent our world has become on software and digital systems operating as expected. Today’s IT environments are far more complex and interconnected than many realize, so when an outage occurs, the ripple effects can quickly spread across industries and into people’s daily lives.
“For large enterprises especially, the difference between disruption and recovery often comes down to visibility and speed – how fast an organization can pinpoint what’s gone wrong, understand why, and act to restore service continuity. That level of digital resilience requires deep insight into how systems connect and where vulnerabilities might emerge, so teams can focus on what truly matters in a crisis.”
He goes on, “As our reliance on technology grows and AI continues to reshape how we operate, maintaining that visibility across complex digital ecosystems will be essential.”
Tracking Venmo
As a reminder, we are separately tracking Venmo, which is also down.
If you’re interested in what’s happening with the payment app, follow along with our Venmo outage blog.
Here’s where Snapchat stands right now
We’ve been tracking the Snapchat outage for about 10 hours. Largely it looks like the problems can be traced back to an incident in the US-East-1 region for Amazon Web Services, which we are also monitoring here.
As of this writing, 10:30 A.M. Pacific, over on Down Detector, Snapchat is holding steady at around 8,000 reports has done so since around 6:30 a.m. Pacific.
Other than one tweet on the Snapchat Support account, the company has been largely silent. The account has been responding to people complaining about losing their streaks and not being able to login, but those response appear to be automated or at the very least copy pasted.
I have seen some people on X claiming that Snapchat isn’t answering their DMs despite the company asking people to DM them to help with issues. That said, the people at Snapchat dealing with this might be overwhelmed. There are thousands of responses to that one post from 5 hours ago.
For now, nothing appears to be changing for better or worse.
In the meantime, we have reached out to Snapchat for comment and will update if and when we receive a response.
Snapchat isn’t alone
The ongoing AWS problems aren’t just affecting Snapchat, multiple services and companies are suffering through outages.
We have a big list here, and it may not cover everything that uses AWS and is affected.
As a reminder, we’re also monitoring Venmo which is also having issues.
AWS provides an update
Since the Snapchat outage is connected to AWS’ issues I am keeping an eye on what the cloud service is saying.
The most recent update from 11:22 a.m. Pacific doesn’t sound good. It appears the most recent solves haven’t fully worked but is improving.
Here’s the latest AWS update from the AWS Service page:
“Our mitigations to resolve launch failures for new EC2 instances continue to progress and we are seeing increased launches of new EC2 instances and decreasing networking connectivity issues in the US-EAST-1 Region. We are also experiencing significant improvements to Lambda invocation errors, especially when creating new execution environments (including for Lambda@Edge invocations). We will provide an update by 12:00 PM PDT.”
Reports starting to decline
With AWS reporting that its systems are slowly starting to get better we’re also seeing reports for Snapchat declining on Down Detector.
For the last few hours things were holding steady between 7,500 reports. As of this writing, Noon Pacific, its dropped down to around 5,000 reports.
It’s still significant enough to keep an eye on, but we might finally be on the downslope of this outage.
Expect broken features and lagginess
The Snapchat outage appears to be easing, though, not for everyone. While some users are reporting buissiness as usual on the app, others are still locked out, dealing with laginess and/or broken features like missing Bitmojis.
As of 12:25 Pacific Time, roughly 4,500 users were reporting issues with Snapchat to Down Detector. That’s a marginal improvement from noon time when the outage impacted slightly above 5,000 Snapchatters.
It’s getting better
Since we last checked in, the number of the Snapchat users reporting issues to Down Detector has dipped below 3,000. That’s a major improvement from earlier in the day at the outages peak, when more than 22,000 users reported issues.
We’ll continue to monitor the great October 2025 Snapchat outage. If anything changes drastically one way or another, we’ll let you know. For now, it’s mostly happy Snapping.
Good news, everyone!
Good news, everyone. The Snapchat outage appears to be largely resolved as of 1:30 pm Pacific Time, with less than 2,000 users reporting issues to Down Detector, a massive drop from earlier when 22,000 Snapchatters were experiences problems.
As the gears of the Internet (AWS) start spinning back up to speed, it’s possible that you’ll still experience some Snapchat lagginess or borked features. Worry not, though, as all signs point to things continuing to smooth out.
If anything changes, we’ll let you know right here.
Your streak is (likely) safe
With the great Snapchat outage of October 2025 drawing to a conclusion, those of you will Snapchat streaks can breath a sigh of relief. As of 2:00 pm Pacific Time, Down Detector is showing just 1,200 users reporting issues. That’s a tiny fraction of the 22,000 that reported problems with Snapchat earlier today.
As reminder, the Snapchat outage is almost certainly a result of the larger Amazon Web Services outage impacting everything from Venmo to Fortnite.
Snapchat is back, baby
With less than a thousand people reporting issues with Snapchat to Down Detector resulting from the big AWS outage, it’s safe to call the debacle rectified. Thank for stopping by, and happy Snapping.
