An iPhone bug is making phones crash when a certain text is sent

A newly discovered iOS bug is crashing iPhones and leaving users without access to the Messages app.

Users who receive a mysterious string of characters in a text are noticing their Messages app will consequently crash, and in some cases, the phone will automatically reboot, according to 9to5Mac. The issue was first posted to Reddit.

The text is partially in Arabic and includes unicode. It's not so much about what the text says, but rather how Apple's iOS handles the unicode sequence

People who are sending the sequence are likely doing so either as a joke or with nefarious intent to lock the recipient's Messages app and block incoming texts. It’s not limited to communications between iPhones; a normal SMS text can trigger the bug, as well Read more...