14 DAY TRIAL // A new bug reportedly affecting the macOS and iOS Messages app causes devices to freeze, respring, or experience substantial lag, with some users even reporting battery issues on their phones and laptops.
Basically, it all comes down to a link that needs to be sent to someone with an iPhone or Mac though the Messages app. The link in question, which you can find embedded at the end of the article (but please, don’t use it for anything else than testing), was posted on Twitter by Abraham Masri and exploits a bug that’s called chaiOS and which apparently causes Apple’s devices to behave unusually.
We’ve already tested the link on two different iPhone models here at Softpedia (iPhone SE and iPhone 7) and both of them experienced noticeable lag after receiving the URL. In some cases, the Messages app crashes and the device is returned to the home screen, making it impossible to launch the app once again since tapping its icon brings back the conversation with the “malicious” link.
Stable and beta versions of iOS affected
In this case, what you should do is 3D Touch the Messages icon and hit the “New Message” option to open a new conversation window, go back to the messages list and then delete the thread hosting the said link. If 3D Touch is not available, you can open a contact card and tap the option to send a new message, after which you need to go back to the list of messages and delete the thread.
While in most cases the worst it can do is cause lag on iPhones and Macs and require reboots, the link itself could really be a pain in the neck, especially because Apple doesn’t typically fix this kind of bugs too fast.
We’ve seen reports of this link causing issues on both stable and beta versions of iOS and macOS, though there are users who said that sending and receiving it doesn’t make any difference on their devices. Some say that just sending the link causes the reported on their devices as well.
It remains to be seen how fast Apple addresses the bug, and in the meantime, you can find the link in the box below (and again, you should only be using it for testing purposes).