Millions rely on Snapchat to share moments with friends and family through photos, videos, and messages. But on Sunday, many users suddenly found the app unresponsive, leading to widespread confusion and frustration across the country.
The issue began early in the day, with users in major Pakistani cities such as Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, and Peshawar reporting access problems. The outage extended beyond Pakistan, affecting users in countries like the UK and France as well. According to Downdetector, a platform that tracks service outages, thousands of users around the globe experienced disruptions.
Over half of Snapchat users (57%) reported being unexpectedly logged out of their accounts, while others encountered issues with sharing content (24%) and uploading media (18%). In Pakistan, Downdetector revealed that 53% of users couldn’t access the app, 28% faced sharing difficulties, and 19% were unable to upload files as of 6 PM on Sunday.
Despite the widespread disruption, Snapchat has not issued an official explanation for the outage. Tech analysts suggest the issue may stem from server-related problems or bugs introduced in a recent app update.
Notably, some users were able to regain access by using a Virtual Private Network (VPN), hinting that the outage could be tied to regional restrictions or connectivity to specific servers.