Technology
PUBLISHED
Be careful what you click, especially if you have annoying friends. There’s a five-second-long video going around that will crash your iPhone.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.Your iPhone can catch the bug through a link to an mp4 video from the Chinese video-sharing app Miaopai. After you play the innocent-looking video, your phone will appear sluggish and become less responsive, then it will totally lock up.
It’s believed the corrupted video freezes the phone by overwhelming it with a memory leak. The glitch plagues all Apple iPhones, including the latest IOS 10 updates, but affects older models quicker. If you’ve got an Android device, your phone shouldn't have any problems with the video link.
Most of the links are on vk.com and testtrial.site90.net domains, but it’s worth taking note that the video link can be disguised as a shortened URL or even hosted on a completely new website.
The good news is that it shouldn’t cause any permanent problems to your phone. The glitch is mainly just an annoyance, with most people sharing it as a prank to wind up their friends. Once you've hard reset your iPhone, all should be back to normal – a bit like a common cold for your smartphone.
It’s thought Apple will fix the patch in their next software update, but until then, watch what you click.
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