Google Maps isn't loading in some regions due to an apparent outage

Google Maps, a popular navigation service, experienced an outage that left the mobile version unable to fully load maps or provide directions. The outage was reported by over 4,000 users on Downdetector, and Google's Status Dashboard acknowledged the issue with the Maps SDK and Navigation SDK. The outage affected both the Android and iOS versions of Google Maps, with some users seeing an error message indicating that the service "Cannot reach server." However, the web version of the navigation service continued to function normally. Google's engineering team was working on mitigation efforts, and the company reported partial resolution of the issue around 5:52PM ET. However, Google did not provide an explanation for the outage or a specific timeline for full resolution. This incident comes after a major outage in Google Cloud service in June, which impacted various clients, including Spotify and Snapchat. Google has not yet disclosed the cause of the current Maps outage or the steps being taken to ensure a complete recovery.