The internet is in chaos today as a massive Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage sweeps across the globe, disrupting dozens of popular apps and online services. From Snapchat and Starbucks to Chime, Ring, and NYT Games, millions of users are reporting connection failures, login errors, and blank screens — turning an ordinary Monday into a full-blown digital meltdown.
Here’s everything you need to know about what’s happening, which apps are affected, and when this unprecedented internet crash might finally end.
🌐 The Great Outage of October 20, 2025
It’s not your Wi-Fi, your phone, or your app updates — it’s the internet’s backbone. Early this morning, Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud giant that powers much of the online world, experienced a major systems failure in its US-East-1 region (Northern Virginia).
That single data center region handles a huge amount of global traffic. When it goes down, the ripple effect spreads instantly — taking with it hundreds of apps, websites, and platforms that rely on AWS for everything from login verification to data storage.
Today, that’s exactly what happened.
💥 Apps and Services Affected
The impact is massive, hitting both consumers and businesses across multiple industries.
Here’s a look at some of the biggest platforms affected by today’s outage:
- Snapchat – Users can’t log in, send snaps, or load stories.
- Starbucks App – Mobile ordering and payments have stopped working nationwide.
- Chime – Banking customers are unable to access balances or complete transfers.
- Ring Doorbell – Live video feeds and notifications are failing to load.
- NYT Games – Wordle, Connections, and Crossword all show loading or sync errors.
- Amazon Alexa – Smart devices are unresponsive or disconnected.
- Reddit, Discord, and Fortnite – Experiencing lag, login delays, and partial downtime.
Even smaller apps, delivery services, and financial platforms connected to AWS have been affected.
In short: if you’ve opened an app today and it didn’t work, you’re probably seeing the effects of this massive cloud outage.
⚠️ What Caused the Outage
AWS engineers have confirmed that a major disruption in their cloud infrastructure is behind the chaos. The problem originated from one of their largest regional hubs, which powers authentication, API management, and content delivery for many of the world’s biggest apps.
This means that every time you try to:
- Send a message on Snapchat
- Pay through the Starbucks app
- Check your Chime balance
- Load a Wordle puzzle
…your app is trying to connect to servers that are currently down or overloaded.
It’s like a traffic jam in the middle of the internet — millions of apps trying to get through the same broken route.
🕒 When Will It Be Fixed?
The big question everyone’s asking: when will things go back to normal?
AWS engineers have already identified the cause and are working to restore systems region by region. Based on previous cloud outages, users can expect gradual recovery over the next several hours, with some services stabilizing sooner than others.
Here’s the likely recovery timeline:
- Next 2–4 hours: Core services start coming back online (logins, basic access).
- 4–8 hours: Apps like Snapchat and Starbucks restore partial functionality.
- By tonight: Most major platforms should be fully operational again.
However, smaller apps and backend-dependent services may take longer to stabilize completely.
🧠 Why This Keeps Happening
This outage highlights a bigger problem — the internet’s over-dependence on centralized cloud infrastructure.
AWS powers everything from streaming platforms and smart devices to banking and education systems. While this makes digital services fast and scalable, it also creates a single point of failure.
When AWS has an issue, half the digital world feels it — a reminder that even the cloud isn’t immune to collapse.
Today’s outage isn’t the first of its kind, but its scale shows how fragile modern connectivity has become. The same company that keeps apps running globally can also, unintentionally, bring them all to a halt.
💬 What You Can Do Right Now
While engineers work behind the scenes to fix the issue, here’s what you can do as a user:
- Avoid reinstalling apps – It won’t help and might make things worse.
- Wait it out – Most services will automatically recover once AWS restores connections.
- Use alternative methods – Order in person, pay with a card, or use offline tools for now.
- Stay informed – Outage-tracking platforms and social media updates will show recovery progress.
If you use apps like Chime or Starbucks for daily essentials, don’t worry — your data and funds are completely safe. This is a technical outage, not a security issue.
🌎 The Bigger Picture
Today’s event shows how interconnected our digital lives have become. A single cloud hiccup can stop people from:
- Getting their coffee
- Accessing their bank
- Playing games
- Checking their home security
- Even logging into social apps
For millions, it’s a frustrating reminder that our world runs on invisible servers — and when those servers stop, so does everything else.
☁️ Final Thoughts
So, is the internet broken? Not quite — but it’s definitely struggling today.
A massive AWS outage has caused widespread downtime across some of the world’s most popular apps, sending the digital world into temporary chaos.
The good news? These outages are temporary, and AWS teams are already restoring service. The bad news? It’s a reminder that we’re more dependent on the cloud than ever before — and when the cloud goes dark, the world feels it instantly.
Stay tuned — recovery is already in progress, and things should start improving soon.