Apple iOS 11.2.6: iPhone X Update Addresses Telugu Character Bug

Apple is now addressing a Telugu character bug that’s causing some iOS apps to crash on iPhones and other devices. The rollout of the new software update comes days after the issue was widely reported by users.

The Cupertino giant started rolling out iOS 11.2.6 Monday to iPhone and iPad devices. The eleventh official update to iOS 11 is important because it comes with the fix for the bug that caused many devices to crash when they received messages containing a specific character in the Indian language, Telugu, as per MacRumors.

IBTimes reported late last week about the complaints users raised regarding a bug that caused Messages and other apps to freeze up whenever they sent, received or encoded a particular Telugu character. Some of the apps affected by the bug were Safari, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.

The bug annoyed many iPhone and iPad owners since their devices would freeze up and become unresponsive. Furthermore, the only way for their devices to return back to normal was by deleting the conversation that contained the Telugu character.

In the release notes of iOS 11.2.6, Apple specified that the software update fixes the problem. “Fixes an issue where using certain character sequences could cause apps to crash,” an entry in the notes said. Also indicated in the notes is the update’s ability to fix “an issue where some third-party apps could fail to connect to external accessories.”

To update to iOS 11.2.6, users must download the software over-the-air via the Settings app. To do this, they need to head to the Settings app, then click General. Once inside the General settings options, they should tap Software Update so the device could start downloading the latest update.

The release of iOS 11.2.6 comes around a month after the launch of iOS 11.2.5, which brought support for Apple’s smart speaker, HomePod, as well as a slew of updates for Control Center, Siri and many others.

Aside from addressing the problem in the iOS mobile operating system, Apple is also rolling out updates to Mac, Apple TV and Apple Watch devices. MacOS High Sierra 10.13.3, tvOS 11.2.6 and watchOS 4.2.3 are minor updates that contain the same fix for the Telugu character bug, according to Apple Insider.