iphone disable trick

Apparently this Instagram story disables your iPhone so I tried it for myself

RIP phone


Do you remember several years back when there was that random iPhone disable trick in the form of a text that would completely immobilise the phone of the person you sent it to? Well, whilst it seems like every so often these texts come around, the latest discovery has taken place on TikTok where people have discovered that an Instagram story (of all things) appears to do exactly the same thing. That’s right, by tapping one of the highlighted stories on a particular account, your iPhone appears to freeze up completely.

But just how much truth is there to this iPhone disabling trick? Does it permanently ruin your phone or will it turn back on eventually? And can I send this to my friends to completely disable their phones? Let’s find out the truth behind the iPhone disabling trick.

@partyshirtiPhone Freeze? With the one and only @h1t1♬ original sound – PARTY SHIRT

Does the iPhone disable trick actually work?

Since the above video blew up with well over 10 million views, the Instagram account went from just several thousand followers to over 100 thousand so it’s fair to say that people are pretty curious. So, does it work?

I looked up the profile (which you can find for yourself here) to cautiously try it out for myself. Fingers firmly crossed, I tapped on the story to find that it does ACTUALLY work! Sort of…

iphone disable trick, @pgtalal

Clicking on the story immediately shut the Instagram app down. I could still go back onto Instagram and use it how I pleased – even clicking the story again which produced the same effect – but there was no all-out disability going on no matter how hard I tried.

Sending it to my group chat, it either produced the same effect or didn’t do anything whatsoever for other people. On desktop, I tapped the story to find that it is simply the word “out” onscreen. And no out-of-use laptop.

So, it sort of works, but perhaps every iPhone is different? Maybe it’s because I haven’t updated my iPhone in a while? Give the iPhone disable trick a go for yourself and see what happens.

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