Apple just released a warning to iPhone users according to Yahoo News that there is a new Unicode virus being circulating dubbed the name “Black Dot of Death,” which comes in the form of a text message with a relatively harmless black dot as the text. It completely freezes iMessages and also makes the screen go black and makes the iPhone essentially unusable.
Recently, we saw a similar bug for Android called the WhatsApp Message Bomb, which contained a very long bit of Unicode that is too long for a phone to read. This caused user’s phones to crash and also rendered phones unusable.
It has been circulated in the form of a message that says “This is Very Interesting!” followed by the crying laughing emoji.
The origin of the ‘Black Dot of Death’ and how to fix it
The “Black Dot of Death” bug that is plaguing iPhone users started as a YouTube prank and soon went viral after the video started to circulate. Initially, it was thought that it was impossible to fix! It renders the user's screen unreadable and takes them to a pure black screen. Even if you try to restart the iPhone, it will still take you back to the same screen as before. There still isn’t much you can do if you get the bug, in fact, there are only two ways to fix it that have been discovered so far which is why this bug is so dangerous.
The first method of stopping the bug only works for iPhones with the 3D touch feature such as the iPhone 6S and later model of these popular phones (excluding iPhone SE). For iPhones that are capable of using this feature, you can simply force close iMessaging using the 3D touch feature.
However, it still requires users to cancel their screen and delete the black dot message.
Unfortunately, this method doesn’t work for older iOS models. Instead, they must ask Siri to reply to the message and push the message out of the visible screen according to Tech Times.
Don’t click the black dot
Phone bugs are getting more popular every day as people send them for a variety of reasons such as revenge, pranks, and other nasty reasons.
You can avoid them by simply not clicking the black dot or any suspicious text message that you get. It is imperative that people be aware of these bugs in order to prevent them and limit damage to their phones. If for any reason you cannot get your iPhone to start working again, it might be time to talk to Apple themselves. To help ensure safety, be careful of what you put on your phone and the messages you open.
