This Indian language bug is crashing Apple iPhones across the world

Spotted by Italian publication Mobile World, this bug can crash iPhones and block your access to popular applications like WhatsApp, Gmail, Outlook, Messenger, etc.

But you’ll be using this very modern expression which begins with a vowel if hackers use the ancient Indian language to crash your iPhone: ‘OMFG!’

Apple is reportedly aware of the bug already, and a fix will likely follow later today or sometime tomorrow. It isn’t like Telugu is particularly rare: it’s a Dravidian language native to India and spoken by around 75 million people, making it the third most common native language in the country.

The only way to escape the loop is to get someone else to message you so that cycle is interrupted. The app crashes and reboots as soon as this Telugu character is received or even copy pasted in text editors – TextField, Labels and TextView.

‘In this case, the entire Springboard will be blocked.

The error occurs when you receive or send this Telugu character. We’ve added some tips below so you don’t have to wait.

The Verge says there is a do-it-yourself fix that sometimes works.

This is expected to happen sometime in the next few months. Bugs have been causing a lot of headaches recently for iOS device users and the latest one just makes matters worse.

Still, until that updated version is released – or, indeed, until Apple pushes out a patch before that point comes – it’s a frustrating and potentially very disruptive issue.

It does so through massively long strings of text information, which overloads the system.

This was first reported in May 2015.

The bug in question essentially affects the devices when a message with Telugu characters are sent. The new update will be integrated into the upcoming macOS 10.14 and Apple may also introduce some of its iPhone and iPad apps to the Mac devices with the update.