Apple CEO Tim Cook introduces the iOS 10.1 during a product launch event at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California on October 27, 2016. (Photo : Getty Images/ Josh Edelson)
Apple is currently investigating a critical but that can disable the Messages app on any new iPhone. The bug involves a single text message that can crash the app and render it disabled even after rebooting.
iOS users who are affected by the bug are not able to read their texts and iMessages since the app keeps on crashing. Rebooting the iPhone also does nothing to prevent the app from crashing since the text is still there.
The text message in question includes a vCard that is supposed to contain a contact for the iPhone's address book. However, the buggy vCard message contains too many lines of code that the Messages app itself cannot process the message.
iPhone users that try to open the vCard message with thousands of lines of code will see their Messages app crash with just a white screen, Telegraph reported. Even if the user tries to force close the app or reboot the phone, opening Messages will just repeat the same loop because it opens the most recent message by default.
There are not a lot of viruses and worms in iOS but it is not safe from such exploits and vulnerabilities. Fortunately, the fix for those who got sent the buggy message is quite simple and easy to manage.
The iOS fix for the Messages app crash includes just visiting a site by YouTube user vincedes3 but the method does not always work for some, BGR reported. Alternatively, users can just ask Siri to create a new message and to send them to the phone itself to replace the top position of the corrupted vCard text.
Users can also ask their friends to text them so that they will be able to open the Messages app again. Once opened, they should immediately delete the text that is causing the iOS Messages app to crash.
Learn more about the bug in the video below:
