iOS 8.4 beta 4 fixes iMessage crashing bug

By

Unicode of Death 2015
Evan likes to send malicious Unicode to co-workers.
Screen: Evan Killham/Cult of Mac

Apple seeded the fourth iOS 8.4 beta to developers yesterday, and while the company didn’t add any major new features, it appears that they’ve squashed iMessage’s biggest bug that caused iPhones and iPads to crash when they received a certain string of unicode characters.

The Unicode of Death bug extended far beyond iMessage, also impacting Skype, Snapchat, Twitter, and Whatsapp as well. Devices that received the Unicode string would automatically respring, crash, and then reboot. Users would then be locked out of iMessage.

Apple offered a workaround fix on its website that required users to ask Siri to read their unread messages and reply to the Unicode of Death bomb before regaining access to the Messages app. A permanent fix was announced to be in the works, which appears to be the latest iOS 8.4 beta.

Apple hasn’t announced when iOS 8.4 will be available to the public, but with the launch of Apple Music coming on June 30th the company will likely release it around then.

Source: HDBlog.it

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.