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Snapchat is currently experiencing a major outage across the world, and developers have been working on addressing this problem and solving it as soon as possible.
The video messaging app which allows users to send images and videos accompanied with captions and drawings has become hugely popular lately.
“Snaps” are deleted automatically, immediately after the recipient has opened them, and around 6 billion such files are circulated on a daily basis across the platform, the number of daily views having tripled in just a few months.
Snapchat stories, which can survive for as long as 24 hours on the user’s profile, have also become in demand, total view counts having been estimated at around 500 million per day.
Given the fact that user engagement is so high on Snapchat, it’s no wonder that discovering the app is down has been extremely frustrating to some.
Apparently, for certain users it’s no longer possible to share videos and images with others, or to view the ones that have been posted already.
As disgruntled Snapchat members report, this malfunction refers to Snaps and Stories likewise, and some have even experienced trouble logging into their accounts.
Moreover, the video messaging app keeps displaying error notifications alerting the user that the service “could not be refreshed”. Also, the bugs persist even when trying to sign in again, or when re-installing the software.
So far, although there hasn’t been a confirmation from Snapchat as of yet, it appears that the outage may be linked to Google’s Cloud Platform. Developers announced earlier today that there had been certain issues with the system, which they were currently trying to identify and correct.
Snapchat, whose market valuation has been estimated to have reached a mind-blowing $19 billion, is in fact one of many companies which has been relying on Google’s suite in order to store data.
In fact, ever since its early stages, the program has been supported by Google’ App Engine, in order to develop its software and run it, while taking advantage of the platform’s powerful infrastructure.
Even though other businesses have also been affected by problems related to Google’s service, Snapchat is probably the one with the highest visibility, and that’s why its own outage has been so heavily publicized.
It’s unclear exactly when the problem will be resolved, but those who are eagerly awaiting Snapchat’s return can access Google’s App Engine for updates provided every hour, regarding the progress of the work that is now under way.
Meanwhile, Snapchat officials have apologized for the inconvenience this temporary shutdown has been causing to its members, and have also declared that they were actively trying to sort out this issue at the earliest.
In fact, as evidenced by the website Down Detector, which provides an outline of service breakdowns and interruptions, it seems that Snapchat has been having recurrent issues ever since the beginning of the week, although most of these have usually been patched up expeditiously.
Image Source: Flickr
