Snapchat Users Report Widespread Problems Sending Snaps, Stemming From Google Cloud Outage
By Todd Spangler
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – UPDATED, 4:40 p.m. ET: Snapchat experienced technical problems spanning the U.S. and Europe on Wednesday morning, as thousands of users reported trouble using the social messaging app.
A spokesperson for Snap, Snapchat’s parent company, said in an email at 3:15 p.m. ET that the issues had been resolved.
The Snapchat problems were caused by an outage of a component in the Google Cloud Platform, which also affected access to Gmail and Nest, a rep for Google confirmed. The problem was with the Cloud IAM (Identity and Access Management) service. According to Google, the issue was identified at 10:35 a.m. ET and resolved within 90 minutes.
According to DownDetector, Snapchat user problem reports spiked around 10:30 a.m. ET on April 8 with nearly 90,000 people reporting issues; 82% said they were having problems sending Snaps, the app’s disappearing messages. That came after a previous uptick in error reports submitted to DownDetector about nine hours earlier Wednesday morning.
Earlier, many Snapchat users also said they were unable to even log into the app, taking to Twitter to vent their frustration amid the stay-at-home COVID-19 quarantine. In the U.S., the hashtag “#snapchatdown” trended into the No. 1 spot on Twitter on Wednesday morning.
In a tweet at 10:33 a.m. ET, Snapchat’s support account on Twitter acknowledged the issues. “We’re aware many Snapchatters are having trouble using the app. Hang tight — we’re looking into it,” the post said. About six hours later, the account posted , “We’ve patched things up… If you’re still having trouble, please let us know!”
Snap reported that Snapchat hit 218 million daily active users for the fourth quarter of 2019 , up 17% year over year and a sequential gain of 8 million new DAUs. That marked Snapchat’s biggest quarterly growth since the first quarter of 2018, which preceded a redesign that many users hated and stalled the app’s user growth.
