A bug in iOS 11.2.5 has been discovered that’s will crash the iPhone when a specific Indian-language character is received in a text message or e-mail, The Verge reports. Originally discovered by Italian blog Mobile World, the bug affects iPhones running iOS 11.2.5 as well as Messages and Safari on macOS, and has been confirmed as affecting not only the built-in Messages and Mail apps, but also third-party apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Outlook, and Gmail.
The crash is triggered when the device receives the Indian language Telugu character, which will cause the iOS Springboard to crash and prevent the affected app such as Messages to open as a result of trying and failing to load the character, at least until the point at which another message is received.
This isn’t the first time a weird iMessage bug has been uncovered, and Apple is usually fairly quick to fix these issues in future software updates.
In fact, several reports indicate that iOS 11.3 is not affected by the issue, suggesting that Apple may be slightly ahead of the game in this case. It’s unclear whether Apple will push out a smaller release to fix the issue, but with iOS 11.3 not due until later next month, it seems likely.
