AWS Outage Hits Major Services: Snapchat, Alexa, and More Down

URGENT UPDATE: A significant outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS) has plunged major online services into chaos, affecting platforms like Snapchat, Signal, and Perplexity. The disruption was confirmed early Monday morning, October 16, 2023, as AWS’s status page indicated that 35 tools were impacted.

Users have reported issues accessing various services reliant on AWS, including Zoom, Strava, and even Amazon’s voice assistant, Alexa. DownDetector, a widely used outage tracking site, shows a surge in reports from users experiencing difficulties with these platforms.

Aravind Srinivas, CEO of the AI startup Perplexity, took to social media platform X to confirm the outage, stating, “The root cause is an AWS issue. We’re working on resolving it.” This admission underscores the widespread impact of the AWS failure on digital communication and services.

The outage is particularly concerning as it disrupts daily operations for millions of users who rely on these platforms for communication, work, and entertainment. The ripple effect is felt globally, with many unable to connect with colleagues, friends, and family.

As this is a developing story, users are urged to stay tuned for updates as we monitor the situation. Business Insider has reached out to Amazon for further comment on the outage and the expected resolution time.

Officials recommend checking AWS’s status page for real-time updates on service restoration. The impact of this outage serves as a reminder of the vulnerabilities present in our increasingly digital world, where a single service disruption can affect countless lives.

Stay informed as we bring you the latest developments on this breaking news.