Many times our Android apps don’t support a number of emoji’s which results in hanging that app. Recently, a message has been doing rounds on WhatsApp that is causing the app to jam for a few seconds.
More about the message:
The message that is being circulated widely on WhatsApp by its users reads, “If you touch the black point your WhatsApp will hang”. It is followed by a second line – “t-touch-here”. The message also has a black circle and next to it is an emoji of a finger pointing left.
Actual Message:
Why it crashes WhatsApp:
The message includes symbols that WhatsApp doesn’t recognize, and are thus invisible to users. When converted to HTML, the message shows the presence of “&rlm:” which is a control character. It’s used to specify that a piece of text is differently aligned than the rest of it. The message contains the control character right after the black spot which when touched overwhelms WhatsApp. The bug in the message is harmless.
The message is being widely forwarded. Those who have received this WhatsApp message and eventually fell for it, out of a deliberate action, need not worry as the message seems like a harmless prank that your friends would play. Users who have had their WhatsApp crash because they followed the directions in the message out of curiosity need not worry. While you will not be able to scroll up or down for a short duration while the operations of the app are impeded.
Google will likely release a fix to address the issue soon. In the meantime, you should avoid tapping on suspicious messages from “friends” if you don’t want your apps to crash.