A certain shortened URL causes a crash in the most popular chat app Whatsapp. For now, it only seems to happen on Android devices.
With over 5 billion downloads, WhatsApp is the most popular messaging service worldwide. Tons of URLs are sent and received on the platform every day, but one URL seems to be doing some serious damage to the Android version of WhatsApp.
Malicious url
Normally the url “wa.me/settings” will take you to the WhatsApp settings page. However, sending someone the shortened URL “wa.me/settings” will cause a WhatsApp crash in the Android version of the app. This was discovered by Pandya Mayur on Twitter and verified by Android Authority. The crash loop happens every time you open the chat in question and the app crashes completely.
When the app is restarted things work normally, but trying to access the chat again starts the crash loop. This can be repeated over and over. Thankfully, no other chats are affected, so you can avoid the crash loop by simply not opening that particular chat again.
Solution
To solve the problem, the simplest solution is to use WhatsApp on the web (which is not affected by the bug) and delete the message with the URL. This will return things to normal. Hopefully, Meta will fix this WhatsApp crash loop soon. In the meantime, the aforementioned solution is the best solution if you find yourself bothered by it.