New Bug Affecting iOS 11 Crashes iPhones with a Single Character

A new bug affecting iOS 11 has been discovered that will crash your iPhone and not allow you to access a range of messaging and e-mail apps, including Apple’s Messages, WhatsApp, and Gmail, among others.

According to a new report from The Verge, the bug takes effect when a particular Indian language (Telugu) character is received, or even just pasted into a text area. This reportedly leads to iOS applications becoming frozen and inaccessible, and sometimes the whole operating system crashes.

For example, Messages will no longer open as the app is trying and failing to load the character, and it appears that the only way to regain access to your iMessages is to have another friend send you a message and try to delete the thread that contained the bad character, reads the report.

This, of course, could prove to be a problem if the person who sent you the character didn’t do it in jest but in an attempt to cause your iPhone harm, as the chances are you’re not going to be able to coax them into letting you regain access to your Messages.

The Verge reported that the bug was tested successfully on iPhone models running iOS 11.2.5. However, it said that the public beta version of iOS 11.3 is still unaffected – thus, we can expect a speedy resolution once Apple launches its latest iOS version.

At this point, it’s hard to say how many apps are affected by the bug, but some notable ones that aren’t include Slack, Telegram, and Skype.

The bug is the latest in a string of troubles Apple has faced in recent months as it tries to improve the stability of its mobile operating system. Apple is reportedly delaying upcoming features in iOS 12 to work on fixing bugs instead, and based on the how many issues keep cropping up, improved stability can’t come soon enough.

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