Sending this simple string of Emoji causes iPhones running iOS 10.1.1 and below to crash
It’s been discovered that by sending a string of three simple Emoji, anybody can crash an iPhone running iOS 10.1.1 and below, similar to a notorious bug in 2015 which caused iPhones to shutdown and restart when a combination of text and numbers were sent however, this particular bug seems to be worse; with effected iPhones crashing the second the Emoji characters are delivered within an iMessage, even if the user doesn’t immediately read the message or open the chat thread.
Who knew a white flag, zero and rainbow would cause so much trouble! – According to The Independent, ordinarily, code within iOS would create the rainbow flag by linking the white flag emoji with the rainbow emoji, using a hidden character known as VS16. However, in this case the two emoji are separated by the ‘0’, causing the system to crash and rendering the touchscreen and physical buttons unusable.
Apple are usually quite quick to respond to bugs such as this which make devices unusable, and it’s recommended anybody still using either iOS 10.1.1 or below should update their devices to Apple’s latest software release, iOS 10.2.
Sending this simple string of Emoji causes iPhones running iOS 10.1.1 and below to crash. https://t.co/eEZ7M24SnW
— The Apple Post (@TheApplePost) January 18, 2017