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WhatsApp app crashes with this link

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Photo by Dima Solomin on Unsplash

Messages containing a specific URL linking to Whatsapp settings are causing the app to crash. We first noticed this in the 2.23.11.12 WhatsApp Beta version when a link to the URL http://wa.me/settings posted on a group chat crashed the app immediately. We can confirm that sending the link to group and personal conversations caused the crash. Pasting the link in WhatsApp also causes the chat to close.

WhatsApp Crashing Bug
WhatsApp Android App crash on opening the link. Image Credits: The Techtellectual

Troubleshooting steps like clearing the cache do not seem to work as of writing. The only remedy to the crash is opening WhatsApp Web on a laptop or PC and deleting the problematic message. However, we would recommend readers against clicking the link on WhatsApp Web as it opens up the option for forwarding the link, hinting at the possibility of a malicious angle.

Clicking the link in PC opens the forward chat option.
Clicking the link on PC opens the forward chat option. Image Credits: The Techtellectual

We hope WhatsApp patches this issue quickly, as it can be easy for bad actors to wreck group chats, preventing participants from reading messages and admins from taking action. We can confirm that the issue exists on both the regular and beta variants of WhatsApp for Android and does not affect non-beta iPhone users do far.

Sharing this article with family and friends can help prevent them from experiencing incessant crashing and allow admins in charge of groups to watch for these types of messages.

Did you experience this glitch in WhatsApp? Let us know in the comments down below.

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About Paul Jacob

Paul’s journey with computers began over a decade ago when he became interested in modeling buildings in SketchUp (back when Google owned it!). Curious about the underlying hardware that powered the tech he used, Paul successfully bricked the first smartphone he owned. Over time, he honed his teardown and repair skills, developing his own homelab and repairing countless gadgets, saving them from the landfill. You can find Paul today either fine-tuning his heavily modified Ender 3 3D printer or searching for used server processors for his HPC. Paul has been blogging in the tech industry for the past five years and is also active academically in computational fluid dynamics, having co-authored multiple journal articles and a conference paper. Paul double-majored in Mechanical Engineering and Physics from BITS Pilani.

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