iOS Text Bug Also Affects Twitter, Snapchat, WhatsApp and Other Apps

[MacRumors]

The iOS bug that was discovered earlier in the week and causes an iPhone to crash after receiving a specific string of symbols and characters, today expanded to both the Twitter and Snapchat iOS apps (via The Guardian). The bug not only crashes an iPhone, but causes the Messages app to repeatedly crash after being opened to anything other than the conversation in which the string of characters was located in.

Although the issue was known to be routed in banner notifications when it was discovered, thus opening a wide range of apps that could be hit by the malicious text, today's news confirms that third-party apps can successfully transfer the bug. In Twitter, any direct message or public mention that includes the string of characters will cause a recipient's phone, with notifications turned on for Twitter, to crash immediately. A similar situation occurs when sending text chat via the Snapchat app, permanently crashing an iPhone when the user goes to read the message.

As noted in the original story, and just last night confirmed by Apple, a temporary fix for the bug remains in place in which a user can use Siri to reply to the malicious message thread in order to prevent Messages from crashing every time it is opened. The company promises that they "will make a fix available in a software update," but a time frame for any such fix wasn't given. Given that third-party apps are now becoming affected without as clear of an easy fix, Apple will probably try to put that update out as soon as possible before more permanent damage befalls any users.

Article Link: iOS Text Bug Also Affects Twitter, Snapchat, WhatsApp and Other Apps

 

[0815]

this is annoying and somewhat bad ... but not as bad as all the media hype around it. 99.9999% of the people would normally not type that text and the big hype will hopefully be over in a few days - if fixed or not, it is not a super urgent problem.

(it is really annoying for school kids - in my sons High School some of the android users are constantly sending this text to all the iPhone users - but he has blocked most the idiots by now)

 

[Futurix]

This is a bit disturbing - this means that the issue is with Apple's Unicode parsing and may pop-up anywhere on iOS... hopefully they will not just fix that particular character sequence but review the whole parser

 

[odditie]

This has to be the most childish bug ever. Basically it is the online equivalent of a shot to the family jewels.

 

[mariusignorello]

Then why don't people stop typing it before things get worse? Oh wait, its supposed to be FUN.

 

[Sevanw]

But, but..I buy Apple for the premium user experience. I was told by the millions of blind followers that the extra money I was paying for my Apple product was for that Premium User experience. You know, unlike the lag, bug, malware ridden issues from that "OTHER" OS.
Oh, I know what I'll do, I'll patiently wait for a fix like I do for all the other issues that have effected millions of iOS users, then forget this even happened. That way I can go back to believing in paying extra for inferior hardware because I'm enjoying a PREMIUM USER EXPERIENCE. Excuse me now while I order my drink. Bartender, I'll take a cherry Kool Aid with my beer.

 

[Mad Man]

I actually see that as a feature. Whenever I want to get my daughters attention (while she is on Facebook or any other mobile site/app not listening to her surroundings) I just send her that text. This gives me a few seconds until the phone has rebooted to talk to her

 

[Mactendo]

They won't fix it. Jony Ive will make it thinner.

 

[neuropsychguy]

"before more permanent damage befalls any users".

Is there any indication that this bug leads to "more permanent damage"? It looks like an annoyance for a minute proportion of iOS users. The MacRumors write-up makes it sound like it could lead to life-threatening injuries (i.e., "permanent damage"). Yellow journalism much?

 

[lolkthxbai]

Is this really permanent damaging the phone in the sense that it bricks the phone or is it just going to prevent me from opening snapchat and Twitter?

 

[AlphaHumanus]

So glad I'm not in school anymore.

 

[Waxhead138]

But, but..I buy Apple for the premium user experience. I was told by the millions of blind followers that the extra money I was paying for my Apple product was for that Premium User experience. You know, unlike the lag, bug, malware ridden issues from that "OTHER" OS.
Oh, I know what I'll do, I'll patiently wait for a fix like I do for all the other issues that have effected millions of iOS users, then forget this even happened. That way I can go back to believing in paying extra for inferior hardware because I'm enjoying a PREMIUM USER EXPERIENCE. Excuse me now while I order my drink. Bartender, I'll take a cherry Kool Aid with my beer.

Wow....while you're at it, with your Cherry Kool Aid and Beer, get a chaser of Life has stomped me and I'm super Bitter. Might take the edge off your kool aid.

 

[southerndoc]

It makes me wonder how someone stumbled upon this bug anyhow? Random string of characters.

 

[Sevanw]

Wow....while you're at it, with your Cherry Kool Aid and Beer, get a chaser of Life has stomped me and I'm super Bitter. Might take the edge off your kool aid.

Sounds like that tall glass of Truth Hurts you just drank didn't go down too well.

 

[oddnendz]

But, but..I buy Apple for the premium user experience. I was told by the millions of blind followers that the extra money I was paying for my Apple product was for that Premium User experience. You know, unlike the lag, bug, malware ridden issues from that "OTHER" OS.
Oh, I know what I'll do, I'll patiently wait for a fix like I do for all the other issues that have effected millions of iOS users, then forget this even happened. That way I can go back to believing in paying extra for inferior hardware because I'm enjoying a PREMIUM USER EXPERIENCE. Excuse me now while I order my drink. Bartender, I'll take a cherry Kool Aid with my beer.

Hey, at least you don't have to wait for your carrier to also bless the update.... at least with Apple, Apple will fix and push it to your phone.... not push it to the carriers... wait forever and day for the carriers to make sure the updated fix doesn't break their precious bloatware and that is if the carriers think you are worthy of the update....

so sit down, drink your Kool-Aid (beer is now mine, btw)....

 

[teslo]

Sounds like that tall glass of Truth Hurts you just drank didn't go down too well.

hey Sevan. is that a name or your misspelled age? bugs happen in every OS under the sun. fallacies don't fix anything. enjoy your phone, whatever it is. almost all phones out there are spectacular. you could've been alive for the 80s, and that woulda REALLY sucked for you (apparently). everything was pixelated and phones were attached to the wall(!) feel lucky.

 

[doelcm82]

But, but..I buy Apple for the premium user experience. I was told by the millions of blind followers that the extra money I was paying for my Apple product was for that Premium User experience. You know, unlike the lag, bug, malware ridden issues from that "OTHER" OS.
Oh, I know what I'll do, I'll patiently wait for a fix like I do for all the other issues that have effected millions of iOS users, then forget this even happened. That way I can go back to believing in paying extra for inferior hardware because I'm enjoying a PREMIUM USER EXPERIENCE. Excuse me now while I order my drink. Bartender, I'll take a cherry Kool Aid with my beer.

I'm sorry this bug has ruined your week and made you feel like a pathetic loser.

 

[TruthWatcher412]

Someone appears to have declared jihad on the iPhone.

 

[teslo]

Someone appears to have declared jihad on the iPhone.

i know right? when i first saw it i figured the worst lol... and i try and avoid pop-culture news media - looks like they still have a pretty good effect on me

 

[fallenjt]

But, but..I buy Apple for the premium user experience. I was told by the millions of blind followers that the extra money I was paying for my Apple product was for that Premium User experience. You know, unlike the lag, bug, malware ridden issues from that "OTHER" OS.
Oh, I know what I'll do, I'll patiently wait for a fix like I do for all the other issues that have effected millions of iOS users, then forget this even happened. That way I can go back to believing in paying extra for inferior hardware because I'm enjoying a PREMIUM USER EXPERIENCE. Excuse me now while I order my drink. Bartender, I'll take a cherry Kool Aid with my beer.

You ain't own any idevice, just an Android troll or in the wrong forum. Go back to your Android hole!

 

[Sonmi451]

This is so dumb. Who would even text this to anyone except high school kids?

 

[kagharaht]

Android users are safe for once. LOL Sloppy Apple, just sloppy.

 

[ouimetnick]

But, but..I buy Apple for the premium user experience. I was told by the millions of blind followers that the extra money I was paying for my Apple product was for that Premium User experience. You know, unlike the lag, bug, malware ridden issues from that "OTHER" OS.
Oh, I know what I'll do, I'll patiently wait for a fix like I do for all the other issues that have effected millions of iOS users, then forget this even happened. That way I can go back to believing in paying extra for inferior hardware because I'm enjoying a PREMIUM USER EXPERIENCE. Excuse me now while I order my drink. Bartender, I'll take a cherry Kool Aid with my beer.

I don't think most Apple fans are blind. iOS and Mac OS X are more secure than their competition. That being said, iOS and Mac OS X are not perfect. Yes this is a strange bug, and rather small in my opinion. It's only a big dead because one it gained popularity, people copied and pasted it, and sent it to their friends messing up their iOS devices. I sent it, and I've received it. But it's quickly passed. It got old pretty quick.

 

[gadgetguy03]

One of my friends tried texting this to me but it didn't work because he's an idiot. My Messages app was slow for a while after receiving it but I was able to delete the message and everything is great now.

 

[TruthWatcher412]

I like how people are attacking Apple for this. Yes I'm an Apple fan but I'm not blinded that i expect anything from Apple or any other tech company to be perfect. So quit whining "ermagherd I paid dis much for ifone and it has a bug." It doesn't matter what company it is, what hardware or software, there will always be bugs and glitches. Whining about it in a forum isn't going to do anything, Apple says they have a fix coming, they'll fix it.