🔥Did You GeT the Message That Could “DESTROY” Your Phone Yet?

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You have probably by now have read all about it, if not then you probably aren’t on the internet much. Apparently there is a new “textBomb” message doing the rounds courtesy of WhatsApp.

This “destructive” message has the potential to crash or freeze your Android or iPhone.

OK so how does a plain old text message (with emoji) have such awesome power after all it is just this:

“This is very interesting!”, with the ‘face with tears of joy’ emoji at the end (this one😂) .

Wow such a simple message with such super powers…how?

Well the secret is that it ISN’T A SIMPLE MESSAGE, in fact it is a very complicated list of commands for the app to alternate between left to right and right to left display of the hidden characters within the message (apparently 10,000 of these commands).
Just imagine if you were told to turn left then right 10,000 times…you’d fall over or die too.

But aren’t our phones really powerful?
Well yes they are more powerful than the computing power used to launch the first rocket to space, but software can still have bugs (not the creepy crawly type).

It seems that WhatsApp has been targeted by a certain user of Reddit (who claims to have created the latest “Text Bomb” message, and made it available to anyone to download from the online Pastebin repository…bad reddit user, bad.).
Please note I do NOT recommend downloading the message it could potentially crash of freeze on any computer, don’t try it.

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But it’s just a simple message right?
Well no it’s not, you see there are TENS OF THOUSANDS OF HIDDEN UNICODE COMMANDS for the software to instruct it how to display the message instead of what to display.

A simple message is never over 100 kilobytes, this message is that large due to the Unicode characters contained after the emoji but before the the end quote mark. (Impressive? Sneaky? A B4stard? Pure Evil…no that’s FACEBOOK).

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In warning us about the ‘destructive’ power of this message we were lead to headlines such as these:

The Mirror. had this Headline: “ If you get this message, DON'T open it: WhatsApp 'text bomb' can crash your entire phone”
followed by a byline:”The message, which was flagged on Reddit, looks innocent, but can have serious consequences if received”.

MSN’s warning was more severe: “Warnings about WhatsApp 'text bomb' that could destroy your phone“
They begin their article with: “A ‘text bomb’ that could destroy your entire phone is being circulated on WhatsApp.”

Then there's this one from The Birmingham Mail: "This WhatsApp 'text bomb' is destroying recipient's phones - how to protect yourself"

Really, what's the worst that can happen......your phone will freeze up and you will have to restart or reboot. It won't Explode, be "destroyed" or have "serious consequences" as we are led to believe.

Well if they can use ‘clickbait headlines’ I guess I can too. (So I did).

Recompiled using information from:
https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2018/05/10/the-whatsapp-text-bomb-no-it-wont-destroy-your-phone/
https://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/you-message-dont-open-it-12500845
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/newsliverpool/warnings-about-whatsapp-text-bomb-that-could-destroy-your-phone/ar-AAwXMHT
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/whatsapp-text-bomb-destroying-recipients-14632421
https://www.reddit.com/r/whatsapp/comments/8gznfx/another_whatsapp_crash_message_created_by_me/

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