Thursday’s digital silence exposed just how dependent millions have become on Google Cloud’s infrastructure. Starting around 2 PM ET on June 12, platforms like Spotify, Discord, Snapchat, and even OpenAI were knocked offline or severely throttled due to a widespread disruption in Google’s cloud services.

For over five hours, frustration grew as users found themselves unable to stream music, message friends, or even access critical services. The issue was traced to infrastructure failures centered in the us-central1 region, where Google acknowledged a “residual impact” lasting into the night. While Google’s core apps recovered relatively quickly, third-party platforms bore the brunt of the outage.

Discord users reported message delivery issues, Spotify playlists refused to load, and Snapchat’s support page lit up with acknowledgments of trouble. Even Pokémon Go and the Pokémon Trading Card Game reported glitches. DownDetector’s outage reports surged across the board, with AWS also seeing spikes—though Amazon quickly clarified that its own systems remained stable.

By 9:18 PM ET, Google declared all systems back to normal. But for tech watchers and companies alike, the event is a stark reminder: centralized cloud infrastructure, while powerful, is also a fragile linchpin in today’s digital experience. No full timeline was given during the outage, leaving developers scrambling and users in the dark for much of the evening.

Want the full technical rundown and Google’s official statement? Check the original source here.