Picture imperfect

Saint Mary Lake, Glacier National Park, Montana. © iStock.

A big, bad Android bug is disabling phones through poor background image choices. The issue came to the attention of the general public when Ice Universe tweeted an image causing the crash; the bug has since been verified by 9to5Google and Android Authority. The bug hits Samsung phones particularly hard, but also affects Google Pixel devices, among others. As the bug makes phones inoperable even after a reboot, we don’t recommend you see for yourself, unless you enjoy factory resets. At issue is a simple question of color space: if the image isn’t in sRGB, as expected, Android crashes and burns.

You like danger? Here’s the image in question: 

⇨ YouTube, “Android Wallpaper Crashing Bug — 9to5Google Demo.”

⇨ The Verge, Jon Porter, “Users discover wallpaper that can crash some Android phones.”