Circulating around the internet is this picture above, which apparently is causing smartphones to crash, being unable to start up or operate. The glitch seems to be more prominent on Samsung phones, and it doesn’t have to have any effect on iPhones as far as we can tell.
The new exploit was found by leaker Ice Universe, who tweeted out the image with an eerie warning:
WARNING！！！
Never set this picture as wallpaper, especially for Samsung mobile phone users!
It will cause your phone to crash!
Don't try it!
If someone sends you this picture, please ignore it. pic.twitter.com/rVbozJdhkL— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) May 31, 2020
This is not a joke, please do not try, I hope someone can understand its crash mechanism to avoid the harm of such wallpapers to the phone. Please developers to study it, this is the original picture of the wallpaper:https://t.co/qPBv9iE56t
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) May 31, 2020
If you curious if this is real, based on the replies in the thread it does indeed seem to be true. Here are some of the possible effects putting this as your wallpaper will have on your smartphone:
https://twitter.com/vamsiexplores/status/1266945696336195584?s=19
https://twitter.com/abdalla_moneer1/status/1266945755400540166?s=19
It’s a weird glitch, but to me it warranted people knowing so they can avoid potentially crashing their smartphone. To be safe, if somebody does send you this picture and asks you to put it as your wallpaper, just know you should delete it real quick.
Even if it is fake, I’d rather not take the chance. I’ve seen smartphones crash and bug out from far less and the evidence seems to be there.
Ice does mention to fix it, you have to start your device in safe mode and then change your wallpaper. Some users however are claiming they’re not even able to get into safe mode.
For now, the reason this is happening is unknown, but better not risk it and just avoid this picture all together. Better safe than sorry. You’ve been warned.
