Bugs that crash iPhones just by sending text messages are not entirely new. Apple has tussled with these bugs for years. However, despite Apple's commitment to crushing these bugs, new techniques keep popping up.

The latest bug involves sending a string of emojis through the iMessages app. When done in the right way, the receiving iPhone will freeze and restart.

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The trick was posted on the YouTube account of EverythingApplePro. Exploiting this bug is relatively simple and does not need advanced programming or technical skills. All one has to do is send a string of emoji arranged in a particular order. The exact order is as follows: a waving white flag emoji, a zero, a rainbow, and a variation selector.

The variation selector is a hidden Unicode character which is not available on the iPhone. According to PC Mag, to use it, one has to copy it from an external source into iMessage.

The second way of delivering the bug apart from sending a direct text through iMessage is to embed the same string of characters into a contact card and send it through iMessage using the iCloud drive.

The first exploit only affects iPhones running on iOS 10.1 and lower versions. The second bug can crash all versions of iOS 10, including the recently released version iOS 10.2.

The bug was first discovered by French iOS developer Vincent Desmurs who shared it on his blog. Desmurs explained that the culprit behind the bug is the fact that Apple does not support some variation selector. The string of characters used on the bug essentially tells the iPhone to combine the white flag and the rainbow to create a rainbow flag, according to The Next Web. Unfortunately, iOS is not programmed to understand this command which ultimately crashes it.

Apple is yet to acknowledge the bug, but given how easy it is to exploit it, it could only take days for the tech giant to develop a patch.