Using this particular image as the wallpaper is causing many Android phones to crash
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The image was shared by “Ice Universe” on Twitter, and since then, people have been testing the veracity of this claim on their phones
A new bug has been discovered on Android phones. Setting a certain image as your phone’s wallpaper could cause it to keep crashing and freezing.
The bug went viral on social media over the weekend, The Verge reported. The image was shared by “Ice Universe” on Twitter, and since then, people have been testing the veracity of this claim on their phones. Turns out, it actually causes phones to crash, especially if you’re using a Samsung device.
The image that is causing the bug on phones | Courtesy: Twitter user @IceUniverse
Since it was brought to attention, the bug has been verified by online Android portals like”9to5Google” and “Android Authority”.
Even though the bug mostly affects Samsung devices, it also caused similar issues on Google Pixel phones. For users who made this bug picture their wallpapers, the phones kept turning on and off, disabling the users from using it.
WARNING！！！
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) May 31, 2020
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
According to “9to5Google”, restarting the phone isn’t enough. In fact, one needs to restart their phones in safe mode and then delete the file, which may or may not work.
Most tech experts suggest not to try this on phones. However, the bug doesn’t seem to affect all Android phones. For instance, “Android Authority” attempted to replicate the bug on a Huawei handset, but it wasn’t affected.
@UniverseIce This is an android issue sadly is affecting also google pixels as well pic.twitter.com/HZTtogLfwB
— Sebastian (@seb3153) May 31, 2020
Most users who tried to play with the image ended up formatting their phones, ie, restoring it to factory settings, which could put all your data in jeopardy, especially in the absence of backups.
Experts suggest that this may be due to the variation in colour space used in the image, which may not be supported by many phones. For clarity - the image uses the RGB colour space, opposed to the Android preferred SRGB.
Just earlier this year, a similar visual bug serenaded iPhones, whereby certain Sindhi characters caused phones to crash. In a series of bizarre mass-crashes, a five-second long video caused many iPhones to crash a few years ago.
Many developers have submitted patches to fix the issue. A tech professional from “Android Authority” claimed that Pixel 4 XL did not crash after the image was used as its wallpaper, but instead opened up space to replace the unsupported colour code, implying there might be a fairly simple solution to this bug.