A certain set of characters will crash your iPhone. Although it seems to be harmless, we can’t be sure, so try it at your own risk.The hack was identified by a security researcher on Mastodon, who says to swipe left past all home screen pages until you get to App Library. Then, search for “”:: (two quotation marks followed by two colons.) When PCMag tested it, the screen immediately went black. It lingered there with a loading icon for a few seconds, and then rebooted to a locked home screen. Other Mastodon users identified additional character combinations that seem to produce the same effect. Apparently, “A”:B and A “”:: also work.
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A new set of crash-inducing characters seems to surface every few years. In 2015, it was a string of symbols and Arabic characters. In 2018, a Indian Telugu syllable caused apps to freeze and shut down, prompting a fix from Apple. In 2020, a set of characters written in the Sindhi language combined with the emoji for the Italian flag caused a crash.
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About Emily Dreibelbis
Senior Reporter
Prior to starting at PCMag, I worked in Big Tech on the West Coast for six years. From that time, I got an up-close view of how software engineering teams work, how good products are launched, and the way business strategies shift over time. After I’d had my fill, I changed course and enrolled in a master’s program for journalism at Northwestern University in Chicago. I’m now a reporter with a focus on electric vehicles and artificial intelligence.
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