Apple has a weird crash bug on its hand that's affecting iPhone owners. When you type a specific string of characters into your device's search bar, your phone will behave unexpectedly. The iPhone interface, Springboard, will crash for a bit before returning and working again when the text string is used.
Posted by Konstantin on the social media website Mastodon, the bug can be launched by typing two sets of quotation marks and two colons (""::).
You can also type some other strings of text to cause the crash — as long as it has a quotation mark in the first slot of the text string and a colon in the third. For example, you could type A":B to cause the UI to crash.
Whether you're in iOS 17 or iOS 18, you should avoid typing the character string into your phone's search bar just to be safe. While most people report that it just leads to a quick soft reboot, we can't guarantee messing with a bug like this won't cause more significant problems for your device.
Apple hasn't commented on the crashing issue yet, but we will update this piece if the company says anything.
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