Killer symbol
From HandWiki
A killer symbol is a bug that is known to crash iPhones in which a specific Unicode character can cause issues.
Incidents
In 2017, an issue with a rainbow flag emoticon caused devices to crash.[1]
In 2018, a bug appeared which made iOS apps crash when two Telugu characters were rendered.[2] In the same year, an iMessage bug appeared where a text with a black dot emoticon overloaded the device.[3]
In 2020, multiple characters from Sindhi languages caused issues.[4]
Explanation
The default typeface used on Apple products, San Francisco, fails to render certain symbols and instead leads to errors.[5]
Related issues
In 2020, an issue with discovered in Android where using a certain image as a wallpaper crashes the device.[6]
References
- ↑ Gibbs, Samuel (2017-01-18). "Prank crashes iPhones with rainbow emoji messages" (in en-GB). The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/18/prank-crashes-iphones-with-boobytrapped-rainbow-emoji-messages.
- ↑ Hatmaker, Taylor (2018-02-16). "People are trolling iPhone users with the 'killer symbol' that crashes their apps" (in en-US). https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/16/iphone-bug-telugu-unicode-ios-mac-text-bomb/.
- ↑ "Black dot bug hits iPhone: How to fix if this emoji breaks your iMessages" (in en). https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/iphone-imessages-black-dot-emoji-bug-how-to/.
- ↑ Warren, Tom (2020-04-24). "A new iOS text bug is again crashing iPhones" (in en-US). https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/24/21234191/apple-iphone-crash-text-bug-ios-13-problem.
- ↑ "This Indian Character Symbol Can Crash Your iPhone" (in en). https://www.pcmag.com/news/this-indian-character-symbol-can-crash-your-iphone.
- ↑ Porter, Jon (2020-06-01). "Users discover wallpaper that can crash some Android phones" (in en-US). https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/1/21276658/android-phone-wallpaper-bug-crash-rgb-srgb-samsung-pixel.
 | This article needs additional or more specific categories. (June 2023) |
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