A serious Skype bug has been discovered, affecting Skype for Windows desktop, as well as the iOS and Android apps. Fortunately, this bug leaves the Mac app and Windows Store app unaffected. When receiving a particular 8-character message, the Skype app will crash. The app continues to crash every time it is restarted, preventing the user from using the service.
“Skype users have discovered a rather nasty bug in the app. Sending the characters “http://:” (without the quotes) crashes Skype, and receiving a message with those characters makes it crash any time you try to sign in again. The bug works as described on Windows, Android, and iOS. It does not, however, seem to have any effect on Skype for Mac,” says Emil Protalinski, writer at VentureBeat.
Microsoft has already responded by saying they are aware of the problem and working to resolve the major issue, but no ETA was given on when Skype users can expect a permanent fix. For now, if you are the recipient of this message (or if you sent it to your family or friend on purpose), you will have to downgrade to version 6. You must also ensure the sender of the message deletes it from their end. This is because every time you start up the Skype service, your chat history is automatically downloaded again, causing the app to crash repeatedly upon startup. We’ll have more on this as it develops.
