An emoji-filled message can crash WhatsApp on Android

An emoji-filled message can crash WhatsApp on Android

A security researcher has found another way someone could crash WhatsApp on your smartphone. Something as simple as sending an emoji-filled message could potentially crash the app.

India-based researcher Indrajeet Bhuyan says that if someone using WhatsApp Web sends you a message with 5,000 emojis, it will crash the messaging app, Independent reports. Once the app crashes, the only way to again start using it is by deleting all messages and re-opening the conversation.

WhatsApp currently has a character limit of 6,000 intended to avoid people sending long messages. But the researcher says that a message with 4,500 characters can severely slow the app, while a message with 5,000 emojis will completely crash it.

The vulnerability seems like a perfect attack, since the message that crashed the app in the first place needs to be deleted to get the app working again. The researcher also says that this vulnerability is only restricted to the Android app. The researcher also says that such a message will affect the iOS app, but not enough to crash it.

The Facebook-owned company currently has over 900 million monthly active users globally.