Recently, a news surfaced online suggesting that a Telugu text bomb was crashing the iMessage app on iPhones. Now, a similar kind of text bomb is spotted on WhatsApp is crashing the Android devices. A forwarded message is doing the rounds of WhatsApp which claims to hang the app for sometime. The message reads, “If you touch the black point then your WhatsApp will hang.” The message also consists of a black icon, clicking on which will freeze the app or make it unresponsive. This is not a hoax as many of the WhatsApp users on Android are reporting that their app is crashing after they tap on the black dot. However, the black dot is not the culprit here. The app is freezing because of the black space placed in 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. So, in the English text we use LRM (left-to-right) directional formatting character, but in the case of this WhatsApp message RLM is used. The use of wrong directional formatting character is instructing WhatsApp to change the direction from left-to-right to right-to-left, which ultimately leads the app to crash. The bug is only crashing Android devices, so if you are an iOS user, then you need not worry about the bug. Recently, WhatsApp director Mubarik Imam announced that the app will soon receive some new features for the better user experience. The features include stickers and group video calling. Imam also said that the app may also soon get some of the features of its business app, WhatsApp Business. Imam was talking at the company's annual developers conference F8.
This is an invisible formatting character which is used to distinguish between left-to-right text and right-to-left text. So, in the English text we use LRM (left-to-right) directional formatting character, but in the case of this WhatsApp message RLM is used. The use of wrong directional formatting character is instructing WhatsApp to change the direction from left-to-right to right-to-left, which ultimately leads the app to crash. The bug is only crashing Android devices, so if you are an iOS user, then you need not worry about the bug. Recently, WhatsApp director Mubarik Imam announced that the app will soon receive some new features for the better user experience. The features include stickers and group video calling. Imam also said that the app may also soon get some of the features of its business app, WhatsApp Business. Imam was talking at the company's annual developers conference F8.
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