Warning issued over WhatsApp ‘text bomb’ that can crash your phone

If you receive it, don't open it.

A warning has been issued over a "text bomb" circulating on WhatsApp that could reportedly block your access to certain apps - or, in some cases, crash your phone. The seemingly innocent message, which was first highlighted on Reddit, simply says:

"This is very interesting (emoji)…Read more."

The emoji in question is the crying-laughing face. However, Neowin report that there are thousands upon thousands of invisible "left-to-right" and "right-to-left" control characters placed after that emoji - and they'll cause absolute chaos for your phone. The site warned:

"While sending this nefarious message to others is certainly not condoned, you should also exercise caution if attempting to view the seemingly innocent looking line of text on Pastebin out of mere curiosity as it may also hang the browser tab or cause the browser itself to become unresponsive."

People who receive the text don't even need to interact with the message to feel the impact of it. If you receive the message, which is said to affect both iPhone and Android, it could lead to your phone becoming unresponsive, which would force a restart. Anyone who does receive the message is being urged to delete it immediately.