Skype users have been hit by a major software glitch.

Sending a message with the characters will CRASH the hugely popular cross-platform messaging app.

The eight simple characters can trigger an endless loop of crashes which has reportedly forced some Skype users to reinstall the software.

We are aware of the problem and are working to provide an resolution

Skype spokesperson

Mac OS and the modern, touch-optimised Windows 8.1 version of Skype appear to be unaffected.

I recently updated Skype, and my PC crashed and I had to get in an expert to get everything up and running again.

Amazingly, I went to my lap top while the PC was being repaired, and Skype had crashed there too, but not taken the whole computer with it.

So what are the eight characters?

Amazing that it hasn't been discovered before because those 8 characters would have been used a lot ---maybe when it crashed before people didn't connect the relevance to what they had typed, ..........................

So what are the eight characters?

Doc, Dopey, Bashful, Grumpy, Sneezy, Sleepy, Happy and Snow White.

From what I have read you have to update to a new fixed version to get it running again.

The string is everywhere, like here:

http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/3/8717951/skype-crash-http-error

Could have been a simple typo when someone entered a URL?

I can confirm this doesn't work on the Mac OSX version - I opened a group chat with 90 odd employees, and sent out :

http://:

None of them went offline

Amazing that it hasn't been discovered before because those 8 characters would have been used a lot ---maybe when it crashed before people didn't connect the relevance to what they had typed, ..........................

Why would a malformed URL have been used a lot?