Have you ever heard of messages from WhatsApp that stop the use of the device? They are known as “TravaZap“, “Contact Bomb“, “Binary”, “Crashers“, among other names. Despite not being something new, from time to time Internet users update the offer of types of messages that have a single objective: to make the person lose access to the account in the application.
It was the case of the squirrel emoji, and now another one appears, disguised as “Tutorial to NO more crash WhatsApp with the squirrel message”. At the iPhonethere is also the “black dot of death” (black button of death, in free translation).
When you click on any of them, WhatsApp crashes and in some cases the cell was also frozen.
On the internet there are calls for weak, strong locks and even a type of WhatsApp immune to crashes (which is not sure to work). The first step to protect yourself is to always keep your application updated to the latest version, since it is through updates that the messenger ends up fixing bugs that can be taken advantage of by malicious users.
The trend of TravaZap has already spread so much that it has become a reason for alerting sites specializing in the application, such as WaBetaInfo, which anticipates news of the messenger before it reaches users, at the end of last year. According to the site, the unpleasant practice is popular mainly in Brazil, although it also happens in other countries.
The risk involves devices Android and with iOS, the operating system of Apple.
What exactly is Lock Zap
As already mentioned, it is when a message has the objective, literally, to crash the WhatsApp of the person who received it. These messages don’t make any sense and contain a lot of weird characters — it’s exactly the combination of these characters that can make the app hang.
After reading the entire message, the user’s application that received the content may crash and no longer open. This is because, in some cases, the software is not able to process content composed of a strange structure.
Below is an example of a Travazap message:
TravaZap: example of messages aimed at crashing the application
Image: Playback/Twitter
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Some types of texts sent can cause WhatsApp to have an “infinite crash”, where the app automatically closes every time the user tries to open the app.
The contents of the messages may vary, but the objective is the same. The target user of the action may receive either a completely strange text message or, in other cases, a list of contact cards in which the names are also composed of strange characters.
On the internet it is easy to find modified versions of WhatsApp that supposedly offer protection against this practice. However, it is not recommended to download versions that modify WhatsApp, as you can have your privacy of conversations and your own account affected, in addition to running the risk of being punished by WhatsApp itself.
What to do if your WhatsApp crashes
The first thing to do when receiving such a message is to try to block the contact who sent it from an active session on WhatsApp Web, as recommended by WaBetaInfo. After that, you should change your group privacy so that only contacts can add you to groups and then remove the nasty message, if possible, from your computer.
If you don’t have an active WhatsApp Web session and you can’t create a new one as the app is stuck, you will unfortunately have to reinstall the messenger, possibly losing your chat history.
It is important to keep an active WhatsApp backup so that you can recover your chat history when you reinstall the app.
The issue of messages crashing WhatsApp has been going on for years, with the app always trying to work out fixes for it. Users often send prank content to other friends – this should not be done under any circumstances, as it involves a serious system failure and can result in irreparable losses.
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