New iOS text bug can crash your iPhone

A newly discovered bug will crash your Apple iPhone or iPad for merely receiving a text notification. 

The bug occurs when an iOS device user receives a string of text written using Sindhi characters. Sindhi is the official language of the Sindh province in Pakistan and is spoken in India, as well.

This type of bug is commonly referred to as a text bomb, as a malicious actor can weaponize it in order to prank, bully, or troll their targets. 

According to a report from 9to5Mac, this text bomb first originated in a Telegram group and quickly went viral on Twitter.

The original text string included an Italian flag emoji. However, Twitter users soon discovered that the bug was caused solely by the Sindhi characters — no Italian flag emoji necessary. 

Text bombs aren’t new. There have been a number of cases over the years where a random string of text caused a mobile device to malfunction.

While most text bombs are often disseminated through text messages via the Messages app, this one is slightly different. Receiving any notification with this Sindhi text string, whether it be in the Messages app, WhatsApp, or social media notification, will cause your iPhone to crash.

The biggest problem with these types of bugs is that there’s not much a user can do to stop them. Apart from completely turning off all notifications for messaging and social media apps on their device, there’s little else they can do.

The issue affects devices using Apple’s latest mobile OS version, iOS 13.4.1. However, 9to5Mac points out that the bug appears to be fixed in the iOS 13.4.5 beta. 

The problem for now, though, is that the iOS fix is still in beta, which means you’ll have to wait for an official rollout.