If you have a smartphone or are familiar with the internet, you may have noticed that things were not quite as they should be yesterday – a massive AWS outage took out the hundreds of services that depend on their cloud computing backbone, and suddenly the digital world felt like it was made of jelly.
The impacts were severe and global, affecting over 1,000 companies, according to Downdetector. But what were some of the weird bugs and unexpected consequences from the biggest Amazon Web Services outage we’ve seen in years?
To help give us all a little light relief from error messages and DNS-related nightmares, we’ve rounded up some of the weirder consequences (big and nonsensical) of the biggest IT meltdown since Crowdstrike crashed the world’s corporate computers in 2024…
1. Slack users were caught in endless Huddles
One of our favorite phrases from the AWS outage was Slack’s ‘Trouble with huddles’, which sounds like an album by The National but instead described an IT incident that affected the messaging platform’s audio functionality.
As seen by The Verge, a Slack status update during the AWS blackout said that “we are currently investigating an issue where some users remain stuck in a huddle after trying to leave”.
Being stuck wouldn’t normally be considered an unpleasant experience, but it’s a little more serious in the context of Slack—given that it means being trapped in an audio call with a work colleague that you can’t leave.
Unfortunately, the issue is still not fully resolved, and Slack says today that it continues to “work toward cleaning up all huddles that are in a bad state.” At least the AWS outage showed that IT language can sometimes be unintentionally poetic.
2. The Premier League lost its virtual referees
The offside lines were drawn for the first time this season to rule out Thiago’s second goal for Brentford ❌There is no semi-automated offside technology available today due to the AWS outage 👀 pic.twitter.com/7vxv6fZ3CE20 October 2025
Even Premier League football was not safe from the AWS outage. There were no old-school floodlight glitches or ticket fiascos, but the problems took out the semi-automatic offside technology during Monday night’s match between West Ham and Brentford.
Unfortunately, as Sky Sports noted above, that meant the officials had to get their much-maligned rulers out again to see if Brentford’s second goal was offside or not. The human assistants ruled it offside, predictably causing online outrage.
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 what amounts to a huge own goal.
An outage hitting the Amazon.com website is a rarity, but now we know what to expect when it goes down — lots of dog pictures.
On top of the AWS outage, Amazon’s own website was among the victims, leaving many unable to view their order history – and thousands were also faced with the error screen above.
Now, we’re not usually fans of twee error pages, but we enjoyed this one – Amazon’s site served up a variety of dog photos, 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 annoying error pages at Meet the dogs from the Amazon site.
4. Starbucks fans were burned by the experience
You’d think the coffee world would be relatively safe from DNS failures, but no — the AWS outage even touched the fragile lives of Starbucks fans Monday morning, who found their mobile app out of order.
In perhaps the best example of a first-world problem yet, this meant that Starbucks customers would have to walk into their local branch and order their coffee in person, just like the old days.
The Starbucks app is down and now I have to go in and order like a farmer.20 October 2025
Fortunately, the Starbucks outage only lasted a few hours, a relatively light sentence compared to the several hours of meme deprivation experienced by Snapchat users.
Others found solace in a collective AWS experience shared in coffee shops, with some on Threads describing the formation of a “circle of empathy” for those affected. After all, this was an internet outage best shared with others.
5. Wordle and Duolingo fans threatened to riot
PSA: your streaks will be saved! thanks for your patience 💚🔥 #awsoutage pic.twitter.com/tYvfLwzikJ20 October 2025
If we didn’t already know that the internet takes its puns seriously, the AWS outage confirmed that it’s a life-or-death experience for many.
Panic set in for Wordle fans who apparently lost their daily streak due to the issues. New York Times host of the puzzle, and it was hit pretty hard during the outage, leaving many wondering if they would be able to log back in before the midnight time for today’s puzzle.
If you think YOU’RE having a bad Monday, the #AWS outage means my 210 day #Wordle streak is gone!20 October 2025
Fortunately for many, Wordle has now seemingly recovered the streaks lost due to the AWS outage, which was probably wise as Halloween would struggle to match a sight as terrifying as a horde of rabid Wordle fans wielding pitchforks.
That said, another group of Wordle fans competed for sheer rage during the AWS outage. Some Duolingo fans threatened to “riot” if their streak was lost, but the language learning app quickly moved to reassure them, confirming in an X post that “your streaks will be saved”. Phew.
Our only question now is who do 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 below The Great Crowdstrike Meltdown of 2024, yesterday’s AWS outage also created a huge amount 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 to flights.
With United’s systems struggling with the AWS outage, long lines and check-in nightmares were reported at airports across the US.
Fortunately, major delays were avoided, but it left many scratching their heads as to why such critical systems are still so fragile and over-reliant on a handful of technology companies.
7. Even school exams were delayed
For some, the AWS outage was actually good news. Many students and teachers in the United States use Canvas, an online teaching aid that hosts lessons, assignments, and course information.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your situation), Canvas was hit hard by the AWS outage, going down for over 12 hours. Some students saw this as a gift, posting on Reddit that “my midterms are inaccessible” and that they were having a “good day.”
Canvas is now back online, although the platform’s maker Instructure previously warned that “some users may experience slowness or timeout errors”. All of this is a timely reminder to those of us who remember essays and exams as a pen-and-paper experience that school is a bit different now.
8. Bank transfers disappeared into the ether
Some of the more severe impacts of the AWS outage were on banks and mobile payment apps like Venmo.
On Venmo, many had problems sending and receiving payments, which caused untold stress for many, such as pay for a wedding.
Many banks in the UK, such as Lloyds and the Bank of Scotland, were also taken out, and the BBC even reported a case of a person missing £50 after transferring money to his partner.
The bank said it was trying to resolve the issue “as soon as possible”, worryingly. But with other platforms like Coinbase (the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US) and trading app Robinhood also hit by the AWS curse, it was yet another reminder that the price of today’s financial convenience is a serious panic attack when things go wrong.
9. People Discovered They Actually Love “Internet Snow Days”
For many, the AWS outage was a hugely frustrating experience that also cost businesses around $75 million an hour, according to research from Tenscope.
But for the many who didn’t have mission-critical jobs 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 quite so religiously around our favorite apps and services.
Of course, the 21st century world quickly re-entered as AWS returned to full health, but the fallout was a timely reminder that our modern internet can be undone by some very old-fashioned mistakes.
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