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There’s a New iOS Text Bomb That Can Crash Your Device

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Screenshot of a text, does not include the buggy text.

The emoji can be any emoji, but isn’t the virus so fitting right now? I didn’t include the text that causes the flaw in an effort to stop the spread.

 

Every once in a while, a new series of characters causes an iPhone to crash. This is a simple text message you could send to someone that would cause their device to immediately crash. They normally take advantage of using different languages, especially those with scripts or right to left orientation, mixed with left to right text or emoji. The result is a message that iOS doesn’t know how to display, which causes the device to crash. The message crashes devices by showing up in notifications. This means a text message, DM on Twitter, or message through Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, or any other messaging app could crash your device.

Once your device restarts, the notification could show again, causing it to crash repeatedly. However, this particular crash doesn’t seem to resurface all the time.

These kinds of bugs are particularly nasty, but you do have options.

Mitigation Options

Apple is usually quick to update these, as the bug is particularly heinous and can sometimes render a device completely unusable. However, if you’re active on social networks, have a large anonymous following, or just don’t trust your friends, you may not want to wait for an update. You can mitigate this issue by turning off notification previews. Any app that can show a message preview from a third party is vulnerable, from Twitter, to Facebook Messenger, Messages, and Mail.

To turn off notification previews, go into Settings > Notifications. From there, you’ll see a list of installed applications. Look for any messaging or social networking apps that have “Banners.” Tap those apps to edit the settings. Then, down towards the bottom, you’ll see “Show Previews.” Change that from “When Unlocked” or “Always” to “Never.” This will protect you from this exploit, but you’ll have to do it for all of your apps. It can be a pain, but the next time a bug like this comes along, you’ll already have many of these apps turned off. You may find you don’t need previews in all of your apps when you go to turn them back on.

This is considered an emergency at Apple, as it’s an easy exploit that many would use for trolling purposes. It’s easy to spread and target people, so Apple wants to fix it as quickly as possible. Still, you should likely rein in your notifications anyway. It’ll help you find apps that are actually important, and use your smartphone less frequently.

Normally that’s a good thing, but these days, screens can be a sole source of sanity.

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