iPhone users detect the 'black spot of death': what is it and what's happening to the phone?

iPhones are one of the most famous mobile devices in the world , thanks to their design, performance, and photography quality. Apple frequently seeks to reinvent itself with updates to its devices to improve the user experience; however, in recent days, several users have reported a hardware failure in these devices.

This flaw is known as the 'black dot of death.' It involves an attack using a message with a black dot that blocks iPhones, requiring a full reboot.

Through social media, iPhone users have reported that this bug primarily appears on the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models. They also indicate that the "attack" begins with the appearance of a fixed black dot in some areas of the screen, especially at the bottom of the Dynamic Island, which is only available on iPhone 14 models and later.

The technology-focused website 'Computer Hoy' explains that this is a bug that threatens these devices and has managed to completely crash several.

One of the most common forms of attack occurs through the reception of a text message with the supposed black dot emoji '⚫', this simple fact alone can affect the device, as it is accompanied by a string of 'invisible characters' or 'invisible Unicode text' that blocks the device's terminal, since it is unable to process them all at the same time.

The 'Tech Times' portal says that so far there are two solutions to this problem: iPhone users can force-close the messaging app using the 3D Touch feature , using this technology exclusive to Apple devices.

After this, iPhone users must ask Siri to reply to the message sender several times so that the message with the black dot disappears from the visible part of the conversation and can be deleted.

This bug is known to primarily affect devices running iOS 11.3 and iOS 11.4 beta versions.

The solutions proposed by technology expert portals are temporary, as Apple is known to be working on a new update that will defend its operating system against these types of attacks.

ALEJANDRA HERNÁNDEZ TORRES

DIGITAL REACH EDITORIAL