Update: The Guardian notes that the bug also crashes the Apple Watch when you try to reply to a message.
Today news is flying around regarding an iOS bug that causes the Messages app to crash and iPhones to reboot when a certain string of text is received. There isn’t an official fix from Apple yet, but there are a few workarounds and fixes that you can do in the meantime before Apple patches the bug.
Here are a few fixes that users have discovered and sent in:
—Have the person who sent you the malicious message send another message effectively canceling out the initial strand
—Alternatively, send yourself a message via Siri, the share sheet, or from your Mac.
—Another reader notes that “sending a photo to the contact via the Photos app can allow them to access the message history and delete the conversation”
These fixes should do the trick while we await an official fix from Apple in an upcoming software update. An Apple spokesperson already confirmed it’s working on a fix that will deploy in a future update:
“We are aware of an iMessage issue caused by a specific series of unicode characters and we will make a fix available in a software update.”
