Apple has acknowledged the Messages bug that crashes iPhones and said it has a fix in the works to patch things up.
The tech arena started buzzing recently in regards to some of piece of software that caused iPhones to melt down when receiving a message via iMessage or SMS.
More specifically, the Reddit online community pointed out that a string of symbols and Arabic characters sent by text message crashed iPhones on the spot, causing them to reboot. The Messages app then opened in list view, but continued to crash when users tried to open and interact with it, MacRumors reported on its blog. The app would work when opened in conversation view, but crash again when attempting to access another conversation.
Various users tried their luck with potential solutions, and some of them offered a temporary fix, but no official solution is available yet to solve this issue. Nevertheless, Apple is aware of this problem and is reportedly working on a solution that will likely roll out soon via a software update.
It remains unclear for now just how widespread this issue is, but the bug doesn't seem to affect all iPhone users. This could suggest that the bug affects only some iOS versions, or takes advantage of a combination of settings. One Reddit user, meanwhile, suggested that it may be related to how banner notifications handle Unicode text.
Until Apple rolls out an official fix to solve this issue, users can take some steps to avoid having this bug crash their iPhones. For instance, iPhone users can go into their device's Settings > Notifications > Messages, uncheck the option to Show in Lockscreen, and turn off banner notifications. Cult of Mac has an entire list of potential solutions and steps to avoid this issue.
For now, Apple only said that it is aware of this Message bug that crashes iPhones and is working on a solution, but offered no estimate as to when it will be ready to roll out the fix. The company is nonetheless expected to take action as soon as possible and we'll keep you up to date as soon as a fix becomes available. In the meantime, drop by our comment section below and let us know whether you've found other ways to bypass this nasty bug.
