Earlier this week, it came to light that a simple text message can crash Messages on any iPhone it’s sent to. Apple hasn’t fixed the problem at a software level yet—but it does have a temporary solution that you can use if you’re affected.
In a new support post, Apple says that is “aware of an iMessage issue caused by a specific series of unicode characters and we will make a fix available in a software update.” It doesn’t provide a timescale for that. But in the meantime, it suggests you do the following:
Ask Siri to “read unread messages.”
Use Siri to reply to the malicious message. After you reply, you’ll be able to open Messages again.
In Messages, swipe left to delete the entire thread. Or tap and hold the malicious message, tap More, and delete the message from the thread.
Not, actually, that much different to advice we’d already given you; good to know that the brains at Apple are so far ahead of the curve. Keep your fingers crossed for that full software fix. [Apple]
