iOS 7 (Photo : YouTube/Mark Watson)
Apple has recently warned its customers that there is a prank text that can instantly crash a smartphone is sent from an iPhone to another iPhone. Along with the warning, the tech giant revealed how to fix the crash.
Numerous iPhone users have been plagued by the malicious prank texts as the culprits are passing the secret code to other users. The secret code has a specific series of unicode characters that resets the phone and makes it turn on and off.
After learning about the iMessage issue caused by the string of unique characters, Apple announced that they will make a fix available in a software update. The iPhone maker gave steps to be used to re-open the Messages app until the update is available.
On May 28, Thursday, Apple published three steps on how to fix the iPhone crash caused by the malicious prank texts. It includes asking Siri to "read unread messages" and using Siri to reply to the malicious message. Users will be able to open Messages again after replying.
If the crash problem continues, Apple advised iPhone users to tap More and delete the message from the thread after tapping and holding the malicious message.
Sending the string of characters does not just crash Messages but if sent in private messages on either of the platforms, it can be used to affect the Snapchat and Twitter apps.
Anti-virus firm ESET security specialist Mark James said he is certain that they have all had their desktop machines reboot after an apparently random event has caused the feared reboot.
"These mobile computers we call phones today have the same core instructions. If all else fails, then reboot," James stated, as Telegraph quoted him as saying, "This does not necessarily mean it's a security flaw or indeed an exploitable bug but Apple will none the less try and rectify this as soon as they possibly can."
