Android users have been receiving a WhatsApp message that contains the line “If you touch the black point your WhatsApp will hang,” followed by a black dot and several emojis. Should you choose to tap on the black dot, be prepared to have your phone freeze on you momentarily.
Why it does this is due to the nature of the message; it contains symbols that WhatsApp doesn’t yet recognise, and is therefore invisible to the user. However, when the message is converted into HTML, it shows control characters represented by the string “&rlm:”. This is used to inform users that the message has a piece of text that is differently aligned than the rest of it.
Fear not; the bug itself is harmless, and reports state that there is nothing malicious embedded within the message. If anything, the message was designed to simply irritate users with a brief inability (in some extreme cases, it crashes the app) to scroll up or down after tapping on the dot.
(Source: Newsbytesapp via Hot Hardware)
