Apple Offers Workaround for iPhone Users Freaking Out Over ‘i’ Bug

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iPhone users panicked recently after a seemingly routine software update resulted in a bizarre bug that replaced the letter “i” with gobbledygook. But now Apple is offering a workaround.

It started last week after Apple released iOS 11.1 which purported to bring about several bug fixes as well as a new emoji. After the update, however, many users composing emails, text messages, and social media posts noticed the letter “i” being replaced by the letter “A” accompanied by a box with a question mark.

Twitter was soon ablaze with complaints—which were themselves often humorous as authors were forced to describe the bug without actually using the letter “i”:

This is a hilarious iOS 11 bug pic.twitter.com/TXFXbvgaqO

— Mike Murphy (@mcwm) November 6, 2017

Mack gon talk in third person like a fucking caveman until Apple fixes this glitch.

— Mack (@mackscott_) November 5, 2017

eye’m actually pissed at this iphone glitch @Apple eye love talking about myself and eye can’t even use my fav pronoun !!!

— morganic (@m0th3erclucker) November 5, 2017

While Apple hasn’t yet fixed the glitch, the tech giant published a temporary workaround on its support page, telling users to set up a text replacement following the steps below:

1. Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement.
2. Tap +.
3. For Phrase, type an uppercase “I”. For Shortcut, type a lowercase “i.”