We are very much aware of pranks, links and bugs that cause smartphones to crash. Last year, a certain string of characters went viral after it was capable of crashing the iPhone’s iMessage app upon receiving it. This time round, there appears to be a new video that will hit the iPhone like venom, causing the whole device to crash in a matter of seconds.
The video appears to only affect iPhones running on iOS version 10.1 or the beta version of iOS 10.2. Tom Warren of The Verge managed to perform a demonstration on how the video affects the iPhone. Based on the demonstration, the video is sent via a link, and it is said that the video won’t have any effect if sent in a file form. The MP4 video, which only lasts for 5 seconds might seem harmless at first, without any immediate effect. Approximately 10 seconds later, users will then notice a slowdown when operating the iPhone, and the handset will eventually crash. Sounds a lot like venom on humans, no?
According to Tom Warren, the video is generating a loop in the background that will cause the iPhone to crash once users close the video. The iPhone is seen to operate normally after a couple of seconds, before succumbing to a total freeze. Only a hard reset will solve the problem, but thankfully the video doesn’t have any other effects on the iPhone apart from what was mentioned earlier.
As always, do keep an eye out for links or anything at all that look suspicious before letting yourself be a victim that has your own phone rendered useless just because of some stupid prank. Till then, stay tuned!
Source: Tom Warren
