With the big iOS 12 reveal being just around the corner, it seems we still have some time to add to the long list of iOS 11-related bugs. A new unicode big has now been discovered to affect Apple's messaging app. The 'Black Dot' bug as it is being called has been found affecting iPhones and iPads running iOS 11.3 and iOS 11.4 beta and it is also possible the bug may affect Apple Watch, Apple TV and Mac as well.
It's being called the Black Dot bug because a similar unicode bug was recently being spread among WhatsApp users that had the emojis of a black dot and a pointing finger along with a warning not to touch the black dot. If users tap on the dot, it would expand the hidden unicode and crash the app. A similar unicode message is now being sent on Apple's own iMessage app. The message being sent is filled with numerous invisible Unicode character that can cause iPhones and iPads to use up massive amount of memory and CPU cycles to process it all. And because of that load, the iMessage app will crash and will continue to crash upon reopening the same message.
One way to work around this Black Dot bug is to force quit the Message app so that opening it again will take you to the inbox rather than the affected message. If it's reopening the same message, 3D Touch the app and select New Message and then hit Cancel to go back to the inbox. Essentially, you should try to get to the conversation list by any means so the you can delete the conversation that contains the bug. Additionally, you can also delete the conversation from a different device that is synced to the same iCloud account.
Apple will be holding WWDC 2018, its annual developer conference, on June 4 where the company is expected to reveal iOS 12. Past reports have suggested that iOS 12 will not be jam-packed with new features. Instead, Apple will be focussing on reliability and performance improvements following a pretty buggy iOS 11 launch. Apple is typically fast in responding and fixing bugs, so you should expect the company to come out with a fix for the black dot bug soon enough.
