Skype bug crashes the messaging app on Android, iOS and Windows
Skype users aren't safe from app-crashing messages, too. VentureBeat has discovered through the service's community forums that the app suffers from a bug similar to Apple's texting flaw. If you recall, that one crashes the Messages app when it receives a specific string of Unicode characters. It's even easier to put Skype out of commission: all it takes is sending or receiving "http://:" without the quotes. The flaw affects Skype for Windows, iOS and Android in different situations. For instance, it crashes the Windows app if you're the sender and completely kills it if it's the one receiving that string of characters. However, the iOS and the Android apps are only affected when they're the recipient, and Skype for Mac seems to be immune from the issue.
Update: Skype says it has released patched clients for all affected platforms, hit the download page to make sure you've got the latest version.
In case this happens to you by accident, ask the sender to delete their message, and reinstall the older version of the Windows application -- you're pretty much stuck until the next update for the iOS and the Android apps. Skype has reached out to VentureBeat to assure everyone that it's aware of the issue, and that just like Apple, it's currently working on a fix.
