{"id":51485,"date":"2026-04-06T16:25:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T20:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=51485"},"modified":"2026-04-06T16:25:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T20:25:21","slug":"phantom-app-updates-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/06\/phantom-app-updates-part-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Phantom App Updates, Part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/iOSProgramming\/comments\/1sc5qi6\/is_apple_creating_updates_for_3rd_party_apps_now\/\">digidude23<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/iOSProgramming\/comments\/1sc5qi6\/is_apple_creating_updates_for_3rd_party_apps_now\/\">\n<p>Is Apple creating updates for 3rd party apps now?<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>This update from Apple will improve the functionality of this app. No new features are included.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/iOSProgramming\/comments\/1sc5qi6\/comment\/oe9c4in\/\">iSan4eZ<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/iOSProgramming\/comments\/1sc5qi6\/comment\/oe9c4in\/\">\n<p>Apple inserted this text into my app and issued an update with the same version.<\/p>\n<p>I&rsquo;m sure about it as I update the app on my phone as soon as I publish it. Imagine my surprise seeing another update a day later with the same release notes, but this prefix added.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@mattneub\/116348383081016928\">Matt Neuburg<\/a> (via <a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@dmd\/116355404288066902\">David Deller<\/a>):<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@mattneub\/116348383081016928\">\n<p>VLC is also showing this. Moreover, I already updated XScreenSaver to this version, yet now I am seeing this modified listing to update to. [&#8230;] Personally I'm kind of afraid to download those updates just in case the App Store has been hacked and evil payloads injected somehow.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>This has happened twice before, and it&rsquo;s probably nothing to worry about, but it&rsquo;s weird that I don&rsquo;t think we ever got an official explanation from Apple.<\/p>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2020\/05\/26\/phantom-app-updates-part-2\/\">Phantom App Updates, Part 2<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2017\/11\/27\/the-mystery-of-the-phantom-app-updates\/\">The Mystery of the Phantom App Updates<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>digidude23: Is Apple creating updates for 3rd party apps now? This update from Apple will improve the functionality of this app. No new features are included. iSan4eZ: Apple inserted this text into my app and issued an update with the same version. I&rsquo;m sure about it as I update the app on my phone as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-04-06T20:25:25Z","apple_news_api_id":"253cafe1-0dd7-4f7c-bf8b-9e615b97d49d","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-04-06T20:25:25Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AJTyv4Q3XT3y_i55hW5fUnQ","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[91,31,2741],"class_list":["post-51485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-appstore","tag-ios","tag-ios-26"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51485"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51486,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51485\/revisions\/51486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}