Since its launch, WhatsApp has been the target of many unusual bugs and hackers that did unusual things on user’s phones. Some of the hackers have stolen information, weird bugs have caused unusual App crashes, etc. The same seems to be the case with WhatsApp’s latest build where a peculiar bug is crashing the app.
Recently, WABetaInfo shared a tweet asking people to share new ideas and the user with the twitter handle @Ian_Oli_01 sarcastically shared a few screenshots, asking WABetaInfo to first design a proper “Crashcode Protection” that most of the modded WhatsApp versions have.
He said, “Anti-crash integrated into official WhatsApp: There are messages designed to freeze or crash your WhatsApp. Then there are modded WhatsApp versions that have a ‘Crashcode protection’ like a bigger Unicode database. We need this integrated into the official application.”
The reply fro WABetaInfo read, “I raised this issue some weeks ago. My followers told me that this is called “Binario”, “Contact bombs”, “Trava Zap”, “Crashers” or simply “message/vcard crash”. It’s very complicated to explain, but these messages can crash WhatsApp every time you open the app.” Reports suggest that this text bomb originated in Brazil in mid-August and has spread outside Brazil, to its neighbouring countries. It contains a series of special characters which do not necessarily mean anything but, the app crashes when they’re displayed.
WhatsApp refuses to open even after force closing and trying to open it again. The temporary solution to this is to not open any messages sent by unknown numbers.
Another thing that you can do to protect yourselves is going to the Settings -> Privacy -> Groups and changing it from “Everyone” to “My Contacts.” A WhatsApp spokesperson said, “WhatsApp has released and already begun rolling out a patch that addresses this in its latest iOS software update. As with any tech product, we strongly encourage users to keep their WhatsApp app and mobile operating system up to date and download updates whenever they’re available.”