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A new glitch: a text message can crash your iOS, macOS device

Abraham Masri has shared a link on Twitter that can freeze a recipient’s iOS or macOS device, and possibly restart it, when sent in a text message.

The so-called “chaiOS bug” links to a page of code on GitHub. If you click on the link, Apple’s iOS Messages app crashes. You’ll have to delete the conversation in which you received the link and start over. 

As for Safari and Chrome on the Mac, they’ll display the “spinning beach ball.” As best I can tell, you’ll have to force quit the browsers, then re-open them.

Dennis Sellers
the authorDennis Sellers
Dennis Sellers is the editor/publisher of Apple World Today. He’s been an “Apple journalist” since 1995 (starting with the first big Apple news site, MacCentral). He loves to read, run, play sports, and watch movies.