Another week, another iOS bug. This time it’s a character glitch that’s wreaking havoc on users, rendering Messages – as well as a number of third-party applications, including Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp – useless.
The flaw is triggered when an Indian language (Telugu) character is sent to an Apple device running iOS 11 or later. As soon as the handset attempts to render the character, regardless of the application it’s running in, the Springboard crashes.
There are some exceptions, however. We found that Hangouts, Skype and Telegram are all unaffected by the frustrating issue. At least, that’s the case on our iPhone 8 and iPhone X – both of which are running the latest build of iOS (11.2.5).
From what we can tell, the only way to regain access to the offending application is to have the same contact send a message in a supported language – English, for example – then delete the conversation thread containing the bad character.
Related: iPhone X
Apple told The Verge that it’s aware of the issue and is planning to patch it ahead of the upcoming iOS 11.3 update, which is scheduled to start making the rounds sometime this spring – though it did not provide a specific timeframe for the fix.
This time last month, a similar bug was discovered in iOS that too caused the Messages application to malfunction, forcing it to freeze and respring – throttling the performance of the affected iPhone – but was addressed in iOS 11.2.5.
Have you fallen victim to the Telugu bug? Let us know over on Facebook or Twitter @TrustedReviews.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
