We heard about a WhatsApp text bug freezing Android and iOS devices earlier this week, and it looks like a similar trick has now spread to iMessage as well. It’s being referred to as the black dot bug, because of the black dot emoji seen in the malicious message.
It’s not the emoji that’s actually breaking iPhones though. That’s being done with the help of thousands of invisible Unicode characters. These hidden symbols are overwhelming the handset as it tried to process them. As a result, iMessage keeps crashing every time the victim opens it.
Reports claims that the text bomb affects iPhones running on the latest iOS 11.3 build and the iOS 11.4 beta. Apple will probably fix it in the latter, although it hasn’t said anything publicly about the matter. Till then, your best bet is to delete the conversation containing the message.
This is easier said than done though, as the black dot wreaks havoc every time iMessage is opened. To get around this, you’ll have to force close the Messages app by double clicking the Home button and swiping up to shut down the application. Following this, ask Siri to send a reply to the person who sent you the message so that the text bomb isn’t the most recent part of the chat.
Also See: New WhatsApp text bomb crashing Android, iPhones
Once this is done, 3D Touch the Messages icon and choose New Message. Tap Cancel in the window which opens up. Then, select Edit in the conversation list page. Tap on the circle which pops up next to the annoying message and simply press delete from the bottom-right corner.