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New iOS 11 Bug Causes iPhone Crashes, Blocks Access to Messages and WhatsApp: Reports

New iOS 11 Bug Causes iPhone Crashes, Blocks Access to Messages and WhatsApp: Reports

By Sumit Chakraborty | Updated: 15 February 2018 18:47 IST

Highlights

Bug involves sending a Telugu character to iOS devices
iOS Springboard crashes upon receiving the symbol as notification
iOS 11.3 beta version reportedly unaffected

iOS 11 reportedly has a bug that can crash your iPhone as well as block access to your Messages app, as well as third-party apps like Facebook Messenger, Gmail, Outlook, Twitter, and WhatsApp. The bug takes effect when a particular Telugu character is received, or even just pasted into a text area. This reportedly leads to iOS applications becoming frozen and inaccessible, and sometimes the whole operating system crashes.

As per Italian blog Mobile World, which spotted the bug, the issue not only affects iOS devices but any Apple product, including watchOS and macOS.

As we mentioned, the bug involves a particular Telugu character. When this character is sent to devices, Apple's iOS Springboard crashes upon receiving the message. This reportedly happens when a user sends the symbol and iOS shows it as a notification. Moreover, if the character is received within an app, such as WhatsApp or Twitter, that particular app will crash. Also, all attempts to re-open the app will be futile, says the report.

Additionally, according to OpenRadar, cited by Mobile World, inserting the symbol in any system text renderer like TextField, Label, TextView, always resulted in a crash. Even The Verge reported that the bug was tested successfully on iPhone models running iOS 11.2.5. However, it said that the public beta version of iOS 11.3 is still unaffected - thus, we can expect a speedy resolution once Apple launches its latest iOS version.

This is one of many instances when iOS has been reported to be crashed due to random characters. In January this year, an iMessage bug called 'chaiOS' was discovered on iOS and macOS. It was found to crash or freeze the Messages app when a specific link was received. Last year, a bug was found wherein sending a white flag emoji, a zero, and a rainbow emoji in one message crashed any iPhone variant running iOS 8 and above.

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