Google hasn’t updated many of its iOS apps in weeks, perhaps to avoid potential criticism from what might be revealed from Apple’s new mandatory App Store privacy labels. But for a little while on Wednesday, some of Google’s own iOS apps seemed to be complaining about the wait: we were seeing confusing notices inside Gmail, Google Maps and Google Photos saying that the apps were out of date — even though there aren’t newer versions of the apps available (via Techmeme editor Spencer Dailey).
But we aren’t seeing the notices now, and Google says they were there because of a bug. “We’ve identified a bug and an update has been rolled out to resolve this issue,” Google said in a statement.
While the notice was appearing, you could see it when you tried to try log into your account. After you typed in your email address, you might have seen this warning message: “You should update this app. The version you’re using doesn’t include the latest security features to keep you protected. Only continue if you understand the risks.”
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After you tapped the continue button, you could use the app as normal — they would still work. But without additional context, users could have worried that they didn’t have the latest and most secure version of an app.
Google had promised its apps would start including the new mandatory Apple app privacy labels in a blog post on January 12th, and the company has technically kept its word. Google Authenticator and Stadia, for example, have been updated with the labels, and in our testing with those two apps, we didn’t see the “this app is out of date” message.
Update February 10th, 11:12PM ET: We aren’t seeing the notices anymore, and Google told The Verge that they were due to a bug.
