Beware Of This Wallpaper That Can Crash Android Phones

In the past, we have seen how some weird text messages can cause iPhones to crash. Now it looks like Android phones have their weird bug too, except that in this case, it would be a photo that when set as the phone’s wallpaper, could cause it to crash and potentially brick your device.

The image in question looks rather innocent and unassuming. As you can see in the tweet below by Ice Universe, it looks like a regular photo with a sunset in the background, a lake, and some trees. It looks like a pretty decent photo, except that it has the ability to cause phones, especially Samsung phones, to crash.

According to Dylan Roussel of 9to5Google, the reason behind this is due to the color profile of the photo, which apparently does not sit well with Android phones. Roussel claims that in some cases, if the phone’s display supports SRGB, then there is no issue, which is why it doesn’t crash on the Pixel 4 XL, but crashes on the Pixel 3 XL.

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WARNING！！！
Never set this picture as wallpaper, especially for Samsung mobile phone users!
It will cause your phone to crash!
Don't try it!
If someone sends you this picture, please ignore it. pic.twitter.com/rVbozJdhkL

— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) May 31, 2020

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… if the current display supports it. If it isn't supported, it will replace the Color Space of the image to SRGB, and it will log its current Color Space.

This is why it doesn't crash on the Pixel 4 XL. However, on the Pixel 3 XL with Android 10…

— Dylan Roussel (@evowizz) May 31, 2020

Now, we wouldn’t advise you to test your phone’s display by using this wallpaper, so if you do see someone circulating this wallpaper, then you might want to avoid setting it as your phone’s wallpaper to avoid the unnecessary headaches that follow.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Android, Google, Social Hit