This IOS 18 Error Can Only Be Fixed by Deleting Your Messages
iOS 18 adds a bunch of new features to the Messages app on iPhone. You can now add text effects to iMessages , schedule messages to be sent later , and send text messages to Android friends using RCS instead of SMS . But despite months of beta testing , iOS 18 also contains a built-in bug in Messages that may force you to delete part of your message history.
Here’s what happens: If you have an Apple Watch, there is a feature that allows you to share your current watch face with other users. The watch face appears as a separate message in a conversation. If you reply to a watch face directly in a thread by swiping right on the watch face or long-pressing a message and tapping Reply , the messages will crash for both users in the conversation. Messages will continue to crash whenever you try to open this conversation again. Not only that, Messages may crash when sending text messages to other contacts.
A 9to5Mac reader discovered a bug when running iOS 18 and shared his experience with the publication. 9to5Mac was also able to reproduce and confirm the bug on their end. And although there is a way to prevent crashes, you won’t like it.
How to Fix iOS 18 Watch Face Messages Bug
For now, fixing this glitch is simple, but not exactly fun: the only way to prevent Messages from crashing again is to delete the conversation that the watch face responded to. This could mean deleting a thread from years ago just because someone replied directly to the dial.
9to5Mac says there’s no way to bring back a deleted conversation from Recently Deleted either: if you do, you’ll bring the error—and the crash—back. One way to get these messages back could be to completely erase your iPhone and restore your iPhone from a backup taken before the watch face responded. However, if you use Messages in iCloud, you may be out of luck: if this feature is turned on, your messages are synced through iCloud. This means that the entire situation, including the erroneous answer, may already be stored in the cloud.
Right now, the best thing you can do is avoid sharing watch faces entirely. If someone shares a watch face with you, don’t respond to it directly and ask the other person not to reply to it. Again, this only applies to a direct response to a dial message; Posting a separate message in response (i.e. not as a reply thread) is fine.
Apple will likely release a patch to fix this issue in the near future, and once they do, it will be safe to reply to these messages. Until then, don’t do this if you value your message history.