What is the “black dot of death” problem on iPhone and how to fix it

If you have an iPhone or iPad, you should be aware there is a new bug out there that causes iMessage to freeze. Unlike some other bugs we have seen before, this one can’t be fixed with a restart. It is similar to the WhatsApp “black dot” prank that was causing the app to crash on Android devices. If the user touches the dot, the app freezes, and usually crashes afterward. The users were able to fix the problem just by deleting the message.

What is the “black dot of death” bug on iPhone

If the iMessage on iPhone or iPad receives the message with the black dot emoji – ⚫, the app will freeze when the user tries to read it, Mashable reports. While it may seem the black dot is to blame for the damage, it is actually the very long string of the Unicode text that the CPU of the device fails to process.

It seems that this prank that is everything but funny was created by YouTuber EverythingApplePro. The “black dot of death” is affecting iOS 11.3 and iOS 11.4 betas.

How to fix the problem?

Apple will roll out the update that will come with the bug fix, but what to do until that happens? At the moment, there are two ways to fix the problem. According to Tech Times, there is one solution for the iPhones with 3D touch and another one for the iPhones without it.

If you have an iPhone with 3D touch, force the iMessage to close and then select the new message using the 3D touch on the home screen. When the New Message screen shows up, you need to press cancel. This will take you to your list of conversations, and you will be able to delete the black dot message from there.

If you own the iPhone that doesn’t have 3D touch you will need to ask Siri for the assistance. After you force the messaging app to close, ask Siri to send a reply to the sender of the “black dot” prank message. However, you will have to do this many times, in order to push the “black dot” out of the visible part of the conversation. After this, you will be able to open the app and delete the conversation in question.