A seemingly innocuous string of characters with an emoji at the end recieved as a forward on WhatsApp is claimed to be the culprit here. The said message reads: "This is very interesting!" and has a crying laughing emoji at the end.
According to a Reddit user, going by the name DieHoe, the message is crashing WhatsApp of both Android and iPhone users too. "It's somehow crashing some iPhone's WhatsApp too," he writes in the post.
"Best way to Send this message is by using a Computer and WhatsApp Web. The Message is so heavy, my smartphone is dying when I try to copy or paste it... The Pastbin website isn't even loading / working correctly on android. Once u sended the message u can forward it with WhatsApp on Smartphone..."
DieHoe also warns that the message in some cases is not only freezing WhatsApp, but also crashing smartphones. "Be careful. Sometimes not only WhatsApp is crashing, my whole system process gets stuck, and I need to restart my phone. Use it carefully," he adds in the posts.
Recently, another forwarded message is said to have 'hung' users' WhatsApp app for few seconds. This message reportedly reads, “If you touch the black point then your WhatsApp will hang.”
The message has a black icon, clicking on this is said to freeze the app or make it unresponsive.
The message thread is said to be crashing the app due to the blank space between the text and the black dot. The message when converted into HTML reveals that the text consists of RLM (right-to-left mark). This is an invisible formatting character which is used to distinguish between left-to-right text and right-to-left text.
In English text, LRM (left-to-right) directional formatting is used while the said WhatsApp message uses RLM. It is widely speculated that the use of wrong directional formatting character is instructing WhatsApp to change the direction from left-to-right to right-to-left, which ultimately results in the app crashing.
Recently, WhatsApp director Mubarik Imam announced that the app will soon receive some new features to enhance users' experience. These features include stickers and group video calling. Imam also said that the app will also get some of the features of its business app, WhatsApp Business, in the coming days. Imam made these announcements at the company's annual developers conference, F8.
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