The Scoop: The fun is ending for the trolls dropping text bombs. Apple is sending out a fix for text bomb issues on Apple devices.
There have been many cases in which Unicode symbols a.k.a the Unicode of Death and URLs overload iPhone and Mac memory from a bug in the past. And now it seems to make a comeback. Recently, there has been news that rendering specific Unicode symbol on Apple devices can cause them to crash and reboot.
Who would have thought that the Telugu, a southern Indian language, Unicode symbol (జ్ఞా) can cause Apple devices to crash? You can see it in action in iMessages.
However, that’s not all. It also has been used by trolls on the internet, aiming to cause havoc on Apple users. It is mostly implemented on Twitter though. Users feature the characters in their Tweets. Others even put up some messages like “read this to log off instantly” and “retweet this to crash anyone using an Apple device.” Some even go as far as to change their Twitter handles for the character.
Although some users are featuring these characters for experience’s sake(if that is a thing), some rejoice at others inconvenience.
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Consider the Text Bombs Defused
Luckily for Apple users, Apple has released an update which contains a fix for text bomb issues. The patch functions to negate the effects of the foreign characters on devices. Users won’t have to uninstall and reinstall their apps that crashed due to the symbol.
Ensure that you have the latest iOS version of 11.2.6 on your iPhones and iPads. It also gives a fix to “an issue where some third-party apps could fail to connect to external accessories.” Not really about the text bomb bug but it was a great and appreciated addition.
While you should update other Apple devices that you own. For Macs: macOS 10.13.3, for Apple Watch: watchOS 4.3.2, and for Apple TV: tvOS 11.2.6.
This is one of the times where keeping your devices up-to-date is very important.
So have you updated your Apple devices already?
