Snapchat, the widely used multimedia messaging platform, experienced a significant global outage on Sunday, disrupting services for users in Pakistan and several other countries. Many were unable to send or receive messages, photos, or videos.
Monitoring service Downdetector reported a surge in complaints from users in regions including Pakistan, the UK, and France. About 57% of affected users said they were unexpectedly logged out, while 24% faced issues sharing content and 18% struggled to upload media.
The disruption began early Sunday, with a spike in complaints particularly from Pakistani cities like Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, and Peshawar. Users from across Punjab and Sindh expressed their frustration on social media platforms, according to Downdetector data.
As of now, Snapchat has not provided any official explanation for the outage. However, some tech experts believe the issue may be linked to server-side malfunctions or bugs related to recent updates.
Notably, a number of users found that the app worked when accessed via a Virtual Private Network (VPN), prompting speculation that the problem might be regional or connected to specific server routes.
A heat map from Downdetector illustrated the global scale of the disruption, showing that the issue was not limited to one geographic area. The platform, which only flags outages when user reports exceed normal thresholds, confirmed an unusually high volume of complaints.
In Pakistan, 53% of users cited access problems, 28% faced difficulties sharing content, and 19% reported issues uploading, as per Downdetector’s 6 PM report on Sunday.
