Even in the past two years, Brother Ji has heard more radical statements, saying that iPhone hardware innovations are getting less and less, and sales are solely supported by the reputation of the iOS system.

Many people’s views on Apple’s iOS system include words such as “simple” and “worry-free”.

Even in the past two years, Brother Ji has heard more radical statements, saying that there are fewer and fewer iPhone hardware innovations, and sales are solely supported by the reputation of the iOS system.

Maybe this statement is a bit extreme, but I have to say that the image of the iOS system in many people's minds is still very good.

is just... Is the iOS system in 2022 really still the simple iOS in everyone's mind?

Now, 2022 has just begun, and serious problems have been exposed on iOS: system-level services have been exploited by criminals to serve spam ads to iPhone users.

The apps involved include system albums, calendars, messages, and family , which are the most basic services of iOS.

Brother Ji, let’s start with the latest wave of spam advertisements in the “Family” App.

This "family" of iOS is a bit like Xiaomi 's " Mijia ". It is a place where smart hardware is centrally controlled.

But, if you are not single, you must share the smart hardware at home with your family.

So iOS supports inviting others to join the family and control these accessories together.

What I never expected was that this invitation system was ruined by criminals.

Because when inviting, you can fill in a sharing notification text.

If used properly, of course there is no problem. But if someone is interested, it will be an "excellent" advertising spot.

In the past two days, many iPhone users found that a huge window popped up after opening the Home App, and then spam advertisements were presented in huge Chinese characters.

entertainment, Macau, chess and card games, does it sound a bit familiar?

Even the most outrageous one I have ever seen is: "XX artifact, how far is it from you."

Good guy, is ghs so direct now?

If the notification permission of the Home App is turned on, things will only become more outrageous. Once

receives these messy invitations, these junk ads will pop up directly in the notification center of the iPhone lock screen, making it impossible to avoid them.

If seen by friends outside, it might become a scene of social death.

Brother Ji went to Weibo for a walk today and found that the time when this problem broke out was probably around the New Year's Day holiday.

Many users began to complain at that time that spam messages appeared in the iOS family.

But when you encounter such a serious problem, how do you solve it?

emmm, the answer is, it is difficult to solve.

Friends can look back at the invitation. iOS only gives us three options: accept, reject, and decide later.

So all we can do now is click reject.

didn’t even make a report... I can’t tell you how hard it is.

I searched through the iOS system settings or the settings in the Home App, but couldn't find a button to turn off the invitation system.

finally saw the feedback from netizens and realized that the only way to completely solve the problem was to uninstall the Home App.

Perhaps this is a very good solution for those friends who do not use smart homes.

But for me, many smart homes require this home app to be controlled. If it is uninstalled, it will become extremely painful.

Killing a thousand enemies and damaging yourself eight hundred is, after all, treating the symptoms but not the root cause.

And not every system App can be solved by uninstalling it...

Brother Ji also mentioned above that similar problems exist in calendars, photo albums, and information apps, and some have even existed for a long time.

Android users may be wondering why there are spam ads in iOS photo albums and calendars?

(Album)

(Calendar)

This is because these two Apps have similar logic to the Home App and can invite others in.

In the shared album, everyone can see the same photos. For example, if you take a lot of photos when you go out for fun, you don’t need to post them one by one.

calendar, you can share the schedule. It will be much more convenient to arrange work with colleagues.

sounds like very good functions, but as long as someone is interested in them, they can be ruined.

If the email address registered with our Apple ID is leaked online, criminals can take action.

Like in the calendar app, it will also show who is invited at the same time. Seeing the wave of invitees below shows that criminals can send multiple users in groups at once. Invitations such as

will also be displayed in the notification center of the iPhone in the form of a pop-up window, making it difficult for us to guard against it.

What is the more painful thing?

If we accidentally poke a link in the calendar app, it will be a big problem.

Every day for the next, this ad will appear. Because after accepting the invitation, it will write the shared schedule into the local calendar of my iPhone.

(The little black dot under the date indicates that there is a schedule for that day)

will push ads to you on time and ask you if you are scared.

Fortunately, iOS now has the function of deleting shared schedules. You can delete all future schedules at once, without having to delete them day by day.

As for the spam advertisements in the photo album, you can solve it by turning off the shared photo album in the system settings.

However, because of this, we have lost a very useful function.

can also only solve the problem by shutting down system services, as well as iMessage in the messaging app.

iMessage’s spam ads may be the most egregious among these situations.

For a period of time in 2019, Apple’s iMessage was about to be invaded by spam text messages, and it eventually became a hot topic, causing netizens to complain: Open iMessage and you can get the entire Macau.

At that time, individual to individual iMessage spam messages could also be intercepted by installing a third-party SMS interception app.

But group type iMessage is not immune.

Until now in 2022, and apple have not introduced effective interception methods.

Compared with the spam advertisements of the previous apps, iMessage, which is full of pictures and texts, obviously has a greater impact.

Is Apple’s programmers too weak, or is the spam advertising too strong?

As of now, the most “effective” method is to turn off iMessage.

Seeing this, computer friends may find that these so-called most thorough methods are either uninstalling or closing.

Although it is said that the problem of proliferation of spam advertisements occurs because criminals take advantage of these channels. But it seems inappropriate to say that Apple has nothing to do with it.

Spam ads like iMessage and Calendar have been around for several years.

It is not that Apple has not discovered this problem, but the method it proposed was to later add a "Delete and report spam" to the iOS system.

Perhaps after reporting, Apple will intercept the same message from the server in the future.

However, this method has been implemented for several years, and it seems that there has not been much improvement. Spam messages still exist, and have recently spread to family apps.

Brother Ji took a look at Apple’s latest financial report. Now “services” account for 21.9% of total revenue, which is the largest revenue after iPhone.

Since service is so important to Apple, it should control the quality of service.

Like the Home App, many Apple HomeKit smart home hardware rely on it as the entrance.

iMessage, some people make money by developing games and emoticons on it.

Even apps like photo albums and calendars that don’t seem to affect revenue are still the face of the iOS system. If it’s not done well, it will affect everyone’s impression of the iPhone.

Brother Ji just hopes that Apple will find the problem as soon as possible and solve the problem as soon as possible, so as not to delay it any longer.