Whatsapp Crash Message Freezes Your Phone with this Emoji
A new forwarded message on Whatsapp is causing Android phones to freeze up and crash thanks to an unusual emoji symbol.
Android Whatsapp users are experiencing crashes and freezes thanks to an unusual message and emoji symbol doing the rounds.
The Whatsapp crash message bug, which only seems to be affecting Android phones at this time, starts with receiving a message containing an innocuous black dot symbol.
Whatsapp Crash Message Details
The message invites users to touch the button (which is often shown as a black dot) and in some cases, flats out warns them not to press the button. One example of the message reads “can’t touch this” pointing to the black dot in an enticing and clickable fashion.
Upon pressing the symbol however two things will happen: the app will suddenly freeze up and will eventually crash the app.
Fortunately, there is no malicious code or viruses found within the message - and opening the message will not result in any data loss.
The reason for the app crashing is the inclusion of special characters in the message. The seemingly innocent black dot actually contains over two thousand characters and ordering these in a certain way will break the rendering engine. It is expected that a fix will be rolled out in a couple of weeks to solve this Whatsapp crash message.
Whatsapp Crash Emoji: An isolated incident?
This isn’t the first time special symbols have been attributed to phone crashes. While this current bug doesn’t affect iOS devices, earlier in February Apple had their own share of problems thanks to a bug with a special character.
This single character found in the Indian language Telugu would instantly freeze and crash apps launched on an Apple device. In the very same month the issue was patched.
