Apple presents a fix for iMessage bug

On Reddit.com earlier this week, it was discovered that a specific set of characters could be sent to any iPhone through iMessages to cause it to crash and reboot. Although the bug has not affected a large number of users, a lot of people have been sending the message to friends and family as a prank. Today Apple has announced that there is a temporary fix for the bug, and that a patch will soon be released to fix the error for good.

The bug makes iMessages inaccessible to the person who received the string of characters. Apple has found that the way to get around this is to ask Siri to read unread messages, reply once she attempts to read the malicious message, and after that iMessage can be opened. After deleting the text thread, the bug will not cause any other damage to the phone. Another way to fix this is to send a picture to a contact through the Photos app, which will also give access to the messaging app once again.

The biggest reason this bug is such an issue is because it has been found to work on social media sites like Twitter and Snapchat. As long as the person receiving the characters views it on an iPhone with notifications turned on, the smartphone will immediately crash. Apple has promised a fix for this bug, but has not given an expected date for its arrival.

Source(s)