By Tiara Battle

After the discovery of a recent FaceTime bug, Apple has since turned off Group FaceTime. They have been working on a software update that they released on Thursday under iOS 12.1.4.

The FaceTime bug consisted of iPhone users calling other iPhone users in Apple’s group video chat feature, listening in on the recipients side of the call before they answer their phones.

A 14-year old boy from Arizona, Grant Thompson, noticed the flaw so he and his mother had tried to contact Apple for more than a week. They credited Thompson for noticing the bug during their release of the software update, but it was a nearly a week after he first reported the bug. Apple has since then been criticized in their response delay but they plan to reward Thompson for his help by contributing to his college fund and paying a bounty to him and his family for reporting the bug.

Apple has apologized to its users and stated that they take the security of their products seriously. They have recently conducted a security audit of the FaceTime service and made additional updates to the app and the server to improve security.

This update also includes a blocking of a Live Photo feature for older versions of iOS and macOS that also created some vulnerability.

Here’s how to update:

– Open the settings app.
– Select General.
– Select Software update and install.