Setting this image as your Android smartphone wallpaper could brick your phone
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Over the years we have had several prankish kinds of bugs that could brick/reset or slow down your Android smartphone or iPhone but this one takes the cake for being scariest of them all. Using a particular image as a Wall Paper in your Android smartphone can cause it to crash and become unable to boot.
The image bricking issue was first noticed by serial leaker Ice Universe on Twitter. Many other Android smartphone users tried to use the image as wallpaper and confirmed that using it renders their Android smartphone almost useless
WARNING!!!
Never set this picture as wallpaper, especially for Samsung mobile phone users!
It will cause your phone to crash!
Don't try it!
If someone sends you this picture, please ignore it. pic.twitter.com/rVbozJdhkL— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) May 31, 2020
Using this image can brick your smartphone
Android smartphones affected by this image bricking bug
Strangely, the bug doesn’t affect all Android smartphones. All Samsung’s Android smartphones seem to be prone to this bug while Google’s Pixel is also affected. Some OnePlus smartphone users also reported about the bug bricking their phones.
Here is a Samsung S20 Ultra which was bricked being shown by a user.
Why are Android smartphones seizing when this image is applied as wallpaper
The image causes Android smartphones to brick or becomes frigid because of the way the Android subsystem handles colors in this particular image. It looks like the Android smartphone display is unable to handle the color gamut of this particular image. Decreasing the color of the image makes Android handle the image very well. If you really want to use this wallpaper convert it to sRGB color profile and it won’t cause any problems.
Some users tried to use the image by editing and using it. Editing the image strangely removed this bug. Another Samsung smartphone user Sebastian noted, the issue can also be reproduced on the emulator bundled with Android Studio. This bug can be used as a prank but do remember, it can also cause serious damage to your Android smartphone including data loss.
Fix for Android image bricking:
This bug has only one solution, you have to restore your Android smartphone to factory default by resetting it. As of now, there seems to be no other way to beat this strange bug other than Factory Reset once it has bricked your Android smartphone.
Warning: Don’t use this image on someone else’s smartphone it is sure to brick the Android smartphone. If you want to test it, use it on your own smartphone