This string of characters is making iPhones crash

By Georgina Torbet Published April 24, 2020

A strange text bug is causing iPhones and other iOS devices to crash when they receive a particular notification. This news was first reported by MacRumors.

Users on Twitter were quick to identify the culprit character string, which consists of the Italian flag symbol and characters from the Sindhi language, which is spoken primarily in Pakistan and India.

Recommended Videos

because of this symbol

. pic.twitter.com/aGwDoAfQZA

— ضيف الله (@i_Deef) April 24, 2020

Please enable Javascript to view this content

There have been reports of this character string being shared via Twitter, Telegram, and other messaging apps. If the string appears in a notification on a user’s iPhone or other iOS device, it will cause it to crash in some cases, or stop responding to touch input in other cases. If this happens, users can easily fix the problem by rebooting the device, so it’s more of an annoyance than anything else.

Apple has had issues with similar text bugs in the past. In 2018, a more serious bug caused a continuous reboot loop when iOS devices received a message containing a character from the Telugu language. And in 2017, a combination of three emoticons was discovered to be capable of crashing and freezing certain models of iPhones and iPads.

If you want to ensure that this new text bug does not affect your device, the simplest solution is to disable notifications from messaging apps like Telegram, WhatsApp, or Twitter. Stopping these apps from displaying notifications or disabling notifications altogether will prevent the crashing issue.

According to MacRumors, the bug has been fixed on the second beta version of iOS, 13.4.5., but this version is not yet available to all iOS users.

Topics

Georgina Torbet

Space Writer

Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…

Mobile

The uncertain future cost of Apple’s Emergency SOS feature

Person holding iPhone 14 searching for Emergency SOS satellite.

It's been roughly two years since the launch of the iPhone 14 and its Emergency SOS via satellite feature. You might recall that during the first two years, Apple said it would be free to use but that it might require a subscription after that time, according to MacRumors. Last year, Apple extended the time limit by one more year, so you actually have until November 2025, when the trial period ends.

That's good news. The Emergency SOS feature is, quite literally, lifesaving. During April of this year, three university students lost their way in a canyon and used the feature to call for help. Another story arose in July where the feature came through once more in a moment of crisis. And if you keep digging, you'll find numerous other examples of how this tech is truly beneficial.

Mobile

A hidden iOS 18.1 upgrade made it harder to extract data from iPhones

A person holding the Apple iPhone 16 Plus.

Apple Intelligence was the most notable upgrade that arrived on iPhones with the iOS 18 series of updates. But it seems Apple reinforced the security protocols in the background that could prevent bad actors from gaining unauthorized access to iPhones that haven’t been unlocked in a while by their legitimate owner.

Earlier this month, 404Media reported that law enforcement officials are troubled by iPhones that are mysteriously rebooting. Citing a report courtesy of officials in Michigan, the outlet notes that the reboots are hampering the ability to access what’s stored on the phones through brute-force unlock methods.

Mobile

iOS 18’s best AI tools arrive in December, but Siri has a longer wait

Apple Intelligence on iPhone 15 Pro.

The Apple Intelligence toolkit has witnessed a staggered mix of delayed features and underwhelming perks. But it seems that the most promising set of those AI tools that Apple revealed at WWDC earlier this year is right around the corner.

In the latest edition of his PowerOn newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman writes that the iOS 18.2 update will start rolling out via the stable channel in the first week of December.