Some iPhone Apps Receive Mysterious Update 'From Apple'

Speculation for fun: I always thought popular apps can use private apis or are handled in a special way by the OS itself. If yes, perhaps this is related.

Then again I found no source for that - and some certificate rollover seems more likely.

Re: Some iPhone Apps Receive Mysterious Update 'From Apple'

#7

Post by Someone » Tue, Apr 07, 2026, 8:32 AM UTC

NSUserDefaults wrote: post #4

Could be a fix for per-device asset optimization that got messed up somehow.

FTA: “The update text is appearing on apps that have not been updated in some time, as well as apps that received recent updates, so it's not clear what the apps have in common.”

⇒ I think that’s unlikely. If some optimization got broken that produces results that bad that it has to be fixed, users would have noticed in those apps that “have not been updated in some time”.

Re: Some iPhone Apps Receive Mysterious Update 'From Apple'

#8

Post by politelemon » Tue, Apr 07, 2026, 8:41 AM UTC

Neither developers nor consumers should be comfortable with this, as this breaks the trust model and is extremely worrying. The site is of course downplaying it given its name, which is a huge shame.

Re: Some iPhone Apps Receive Mysterious Update 'From Apple'

#9

Post by hdgvhicv » Tue, Apr 07, 2026, 8:44 AM UTC

Vast majority of change logs are along the lines of “implements to make things better”

Re: Some iPhone Apps Receive Mysterious Update 'From Apple'

#10

Post by gbil » Tue, Apr 07, 2026, 9:02 AM UTC

I saw this the other day in a couple of apps, I've checked other apps and didn't have that, did a quick check on HN frontpage and saw nothing and said wth I'll update to see if something changes in the app or there is a message. Got nothing, and didn't think more about it but I'm not sure why, is it the "trust in the process" thing or what?