iphone bug - crash while receiving imessage

Already well known. Some more info if you want it

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/08/rendering-bug-crashes-os-x-and-ios-apps-wit h-string-of-arabic-characters/

So, now my tech-savvy android friends find it hilarious to send me an SMS with these characters in and I am unable to open the message app to read any messages from other people.

How can I get back in to my messaging app without losing the messages I've been unable to read yet?

I am using iPhone 5 32G with iOS 6.1.4

Unfortunately... this WELL KNOWN bug doesn't appear to be fixed yet and it's been almost TWO (2) YEARS since it was reported to Apple!!! Just used it to crash a new iPhone 6 & 6-Plus both running the latest iOS 8.3 update - in fact we found a way to totally crash the Messages App until the original sender sent another specifically crafted message to the receiver. Shutting down and restarting the iPhones did nothing to correct the problem, which makes sense because it was restarted by the sent bug message. Based on this simple experiment, I can easily someone creating a hack to take out a number of peoples iPhone Messages App.

You can see how quickly this is becoming a problem here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/TechnologyProTips/comments/37dkpn/tpt_how_to_shut_off_an _iphone_indirectly_through/

Come on Apple... you guys really do need to fix this problem before it becomes a "MessagesGate" or something like that problem for you. The above link shows it's crowing quickly. Social media will exploit this to the max. Fix it and fast... please and THANK YOU!

"A new bug has been discovered in the Messages app, allowing a string of characters sent to a person via iMessage or SMS to crash an iPhone and cause the Messages app to crash after being opened. The bug, which requires a specific string of symbols and Arabic characters to be sent, was first noticed on reddit earlier this afternoon and has been spreading around the Internet since then.

Sending the string of characters to an iPhone results in an immediate respring, causing an iPhone to crash and quickly reboot. From there, if the Messages app was opened at a list view, the Messages app crashes automatically when you try to open it. If it was opened to the conversation where you received the message, the app will open, but attempting to go to another conversation causes Messages to crash."

How to Fix this Issue

-Sending a reply message may fix the problem.

-If Messages was opened to the conversation list view, the app will crash when you attempt to open it. You can fix this by having someone send you a message or by sending a message to yourself. There are several options for sending a message to yourself, including sending yourself a message via Siri or through the Share sheet in any app such as notes.

-Another method that may work is “sending a photo to the contact via the Photos app can allow them to access the message history and delete the conversation”

-If message was sent in a group message, have someone remove user from the group message and re-add the user.

-if customer is able to get into the effected thread, try holding a bubble>selecting more>select all>trash

-if none of these methods work, restore from a back-up from before the message was received

-if no back up is available, transfer purchases, import photos, screenshot important messages(if possible), erase and set up as new, sync content back.

-If customer have a contact or phone # that is doing this repeatedly, have customer block contact from contacting them.

How to Prevent this Issue

have you figured out how to do this yet and get back onto your messages