Telegram public chats are getting spammed with a new kind of "bomb": a sticker or emoji that instantly crashes the app. Just opening a message with this sticker—or even tapping a link to its sticker pack—will make Telegram crash every time. Users say the bug is hitting iPhone, macOS, and the desktop app. People are already reporting that a single sticker can crash the app for good.

What’s going on?

This is a client-side crash triggered by displaying a specific sticker or emoji. If you try to open a chat with the buggy sticker, Telegram will keep crashing on launch. The issue affects iPhones, Macs, and desktop versions of Telegram.

This isn’t a hack

This bug doesn’t compromise your account—nobody’s getting access to your messages, keys, or personal info. It’s just a stability issue: Telegram crashes when it tries to process the bad sticker message.

How to fix it right now

If Telegram won’t open because of a crash sticker, delete the offending message using the web version to get your chat back. The desktop bug has already been patched. On iPhone, the fix is currently only available in the test version.