If you have a smartphone or are familiar with the Internet, you may have noticed that things weren’t quite right yesterday: a major AWS outage wiped out hundreds of services that rely on its cloud computing backbone, and suddenly the digital world felt like it was made of jello.
The impacts were serious and global, affecting more than 1,000 companies according to Downdetector. But what were some of the strangest glitches and unexpected consequences of the biggest outage to Amazon Web Services we’ve seen in years?
To help us all get some relief from the error messages and DNS nightmares, we’ve rounded up some of the strangest (big and frivolous) consequences of the biggest IT meltdown since Crowdstrike crashed the world’s enterprise computers in 2024…
1. Slack Users Got Stuck in Endless Meetings
One of our favorite quotes from the AWS outage was from Slack. ‘Trouble with huddles’, which sounds like a record The National Instead, he described an IT incident that affected the messaging platform’s audio feature.
As spotted by The Verge, a Slack status update during the AWS outage said that “we are currently investigating an issue where some users remain stuck in a group after attempting to leave.”
Being stuck in a group isn’t generally considered an unpleasant experience, but it’s a bit more serious in the context of Slack, since it means getting stuck in an audio call with a co-worker that you can’t leave.
Unfortunately, the issue has not yet been completely fixed, and Slack said today that it continues to “work to clean up any groups that are in bad shape.” The AWS outage at least showed that IT language can sometimes be unintentionally poetic.
2. The Premier League lost its virtual referees
Offside lines were drawn for the first time this season to rule out Thiago’s second goal for Brentford. No semi-automatic offside technology available today due to AWS outage đź‘€ pic.twitter.com/7vxv6fZ3CEOctober 20, 2025
Not even Premier League football was safe from the AWS outage. There were no old-school floodlight failures or tackle fiascos, but the problems did deactivate the semi-automatic offside technology during Monday night’s match between West Ham and Brentford.
Unfortunately, as Sky Sports previously pointed out, that meant the referees had to bring out their much-maligned rulers again to see if Brentford’s second goal was offside or not. The human assistants decided it was offside, which predictably sparked outrage on social media.
The semi-automated Offside technology is run by a company called Genius Sports, which recently migrated its infrastructure to a typically safe pair of hands called Amazon Web Services. Unfortunately, this week AWS scored the equivalent of a huge own goal.
An outage affecting Amazon.com’s homepage is a rarity, but now we know what to expect when it happens: lots of dog photos.
At the height of the AWS outage, Amazon’s own homepage was among the victims, leaving many unable to view their order histories, with thousands also facing the above error screen.
Now, we’re usually not fans of cheesy blooper pages, but we enjoyed this one: The Amazon page showed several photos of different dogs, all of which belong to Amazon workers.
An impressive 15,000 dogs are registered to work in Amazon offices and you can meet more of them away from the annoying error pages on the Meet the dogs on the Amazon page.
4. Starbucks fans were impressed by the experience.
You’d think the coffee world would be relatively safe from DNS failures, but no: the AWS outage even affected the fragile Monday morning lives of Starbucks fans who discovered their mobile app was down.
In perhaps the best example of a First World problem yet, this meant that Starbucks customers had to go to their local branch and order their coffee in person, just like the old days.
The Starbucks app doesn’t work and now I have to go in and order like a peasant.October 20, 2025
Fortunately, the Starbucks outage only lasted a couple of hours, a comparatively light sentence compared to the several hours of meme deprivation that Snapchat users experienced.
Others found solace in a collective AWS experience shared in coffee shops, and some on Threads described forming a “circle of empathy” for those affected. After all, this was an Internet outage that was best shared with others.
5. Wordle and Duolingo fans threatened to riot.
PSA: your streaks will be saved! thank you for your patience 💚🔥 #awsoutage pic.twitter.com/tYvfLwzikJOctober 20, 2025
If we didn’t already know that the Internet takes puns seriously, the AWS outage confirmed that it is a life or death experience for many.
Panic set in among Wordle fans who apparently lost their daily streak due to the problems. The New York Times houses the puzzle game, and was hit quite a bit during the outage, leaving many wondering if they would be able to log back in before the midnight deadline for that day’s puzzle.
If you think you’re having a bad Monday, the #AWS outage means my 210-day #Wordle streak is gone!October 20, 2025
Fortunately for many, Wordle has apparently restored the streaks lost due to the AWS outage, which was probably wise given that Halloween would struggle to match a sight as terrifying as a horde of angry Wordle fans brandishing pitchforks.
That said, another group rivaled Wordle fans for their fury during the AWS outage. Some Duolingo fans threatened “riots” if they lost their streak, but the language learning app moved quickly to reassure them, confirming in an X post that “your streaks will be saved.” Phew.
Our only question now is who would you want on your side during a zombie apocalypse, Duolingo or Wordle fans?
6. Airline passengers lost check-in information and seat reservations
In an echo of the airport carnage we saw during the Great Crowdstrike Meltdown of 2024, yesterday’s AWS outage also created a lot of confusion for airline passengers.
As CNBC reported, some Delta and United passengers saw reservations and seat assignments disappear, while also finding they couldn’t check in for flights.
As United systems struggled with the AWS outage, long lines and nightmarish check-ins were reported at airports across the United States.
Fortunately, major delays were avoided, but again it left many wondering why such critical systems remain so fragile and overly dependent on a handful of technology companies.
7. Even school exams were delayed
For some, the AWS discontinuation was actually good news. Many students and teachers in the US use Canvas, an online teaching aid that houses lessons, assignments, and course information.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your situation), Canvas was severely impacted by the AWS outage and was down for over 12 hours. Some students saw this as a blessing, writing on Reddit that “my midterms are inaccessible” and that they were having a “great day.”
Canvas is now back online, although the platform’s creator, Instructure, previously warned that “some users may be experiencing slow or timeout errors.” All of which is a timely reminder to those of us who remember essays and exams being a pencil-and-paper experience that school is a little different now.
8. Bank transfers disappeared into the ether
Some of the most severe impacts of the AWS outage were on banks and mobile payment apps like Venmo.
On Venmo, many had trouble sending and receiving payments, causing untold stress to many who were, for example, trying to pay for a wedding
Many banks in the UK, such as Lloyds and Bank of Scotland, were also delisted, with the BBC even reporting the case of a person who was left ÂŁ50 short after transferring money to his partner.
The bank said it was trying to resolve the issue “as quickly as possible,” which is worrying. But with other platforms like Coinbase (the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US) and trading app Robinhood also affected by the curse of AWS, it was again another reminder that the price of today’s financial convenience is a serious jolt of panic when things go wrong.
9. People discovered that they actually love “Internet snow days.”
The AWS outage was, for many, a hugely frustrating experience that also cost businesses around $75 million an hour, according to Tenscope research.
But for many who didn’t have crucial tasks that depended on Amazon’s cloud backbone, it was a reminder that life can actually be better with a little less Internet, and that maybe we don’t need to build our lives so religiously around our favorite apps and services.
Of course, the 21st century world quickly crashed again as AWS returned to full health, but the outage was a timely reminder that our modern Internet can come undone due to a few old-school mistakes.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to receive news, reviews and opinions from our experts in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form and receive regular updates from us on WhatsApp also.
