If you thought that Apple’s software troubles with iOS were finished after some bugs were squashed recently, think again. A new iOS bug has been discovered which not only crashes iPhones but also disables access to the native Messages app as well as third-party messaging apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. It even disables access to apps like Gmail and Outlook for iOS.
The bug can be triggered by sending a particular character in the Telugu language to devices powered by iOS 11. Once the message is received, Apple’s Springboard crashes and Messages won’t open as the app tries and fails to load the character.
This isn’t just limited to iMessages on iOS 11-powered smartphones. The bug also ends up disabling the aforementioned apps once the message is received. The only way out appears to be having someone else send you a message and then try to delete the thread with the character that causes the Springboard to crash.
According to reports, even macOS apps are affected by this bug. Italian blog Mobile World reproduced it on Safari and Note on macOS and both crashed as soon as the character was displayed.
The bug is said to be relatively new so Apple hasn’t said anything about it just yet. Hopefully, the company is going to send out an update soon which fixes this bug so that users don’t have to suffer if someone sends this character to them as a joke and makes their life difficult.
Given all of the recent reports about bugs in iOS 11, Apple is now believed to be focusing on improving the reliability of the next major iOS update at the cost of delaying some new features.