There are 2 new WhatsApp bugs going around terrorizing unsuspecting Android and iOS users, crashing the app and sometime their phone itself. The modus operandi appears to be pretty simple, with the prankster just having to forward a simple message.
These WhatsApp message bombs are fairly common, but it’s unusual for them to be potent enough to crash both Android and iOS. There are currently 2 types of texts being sent across. Both contain hidden symbols in between spaces. Tapping on “Read More” will expand the rest of the message and overload WhatsApp or the smartphone entirely.
One type of WhatsApp forward contains a black dot which comes with a useful warning about what will happen if it’s tapped on. Most people don’t play heed to this alert and open it anyway. The other one starts off with the sentence “This is very interesting!” and the laughing tears emoji before the Read More option appears, sans warning.
The person behind the second shared his creation on Reddit and YouTube, advising people to use their computer to forward the missive via WhatsApp Web since the text is so heavy it’ll cause most handsets to slow down. They’re also advising caution since it not only crashes WhatsApp, but also the entire system process.
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This in turn forced them to restart their phone. WhatsApp hasn’t said anything about these malicious forwards yet, so a solution may or may not be on its way. Apple typically releases fixes for similar iMessage bugs fairly quickly, but we’ll have to wait and see whether the Facebook-owned app will do the same.