In 2017 it was an endless crash loop caused by any app with local time-based notifications.... Which for almost everyone at the Apple store I visited was meditation apps with daily meditation reminders (in Australia we were among the first to wake up on that affected date. The fix went out before most of the remaining world woke up)
I wonder if the daily reminder is triggering a reinstall? Perhaps try disabling the reminders before uninstalling.
It downloaded itself on my phone as well. I thought it was some quirk with the Apple Watch sync because I used to have headspace installed at some point and that automatically shows up on the Apple Watch but deleting an app on the iPhone doesn’t always delete the corresponding Apple Watch app. So if you open headspace on the Apple Watch I assumed it redownloaded itself on the iPhone.
same. i get blasted with ads for this app on whatever platform, never installed it myself. the amount of promotions + this = my underdeveloped brain is so ready to assume the worst here. been a while since i used my pitchfork & i'm here for the riot.
if it is, in fact, something nefarious at play that would be a pretty crazy 2026 era exploit. but i'm certain it's a bug/artifact of some sort that, for whatever reason, affects this specific app.
Maybe the developer was using Headspace as part of the test data and it bled into production?
It's hard to imagine what Headspace would like to achieve if this were an exploit executed by them. It's so salient, that it makes no sense to do on purpose. At least some portion of Apple employees and their families are going to be affected by this, and this would escalate to the legal department immediately.
when "explaining a thing, no more assumptions should be made than are necessary."
could be an ios bug; a bug with the notification library they use, any other app behaving similarly?
considering the possibility this was on purpose, they would risk getting banned from the appstore. no, they are not big enough to avoid that. so it's unlikely this was intentional.
Based on that I'd guess either a meditation app company has figured out how to circumvent a lot of controls put in place by Apple, or it's a bug on Apple's side
Yeah, I think the latter is more likely than the former. Perhaps a server side bug that's silently downloading the app on any device that's installed it previously?
Maybe it’s like that time Apple thought everyone wanted that awful free U2 album that they automatically added to everyone’s iTunes library. (I know this isn’t actually the case but it’s the funniest explanation)
Right, that's what confuses me the most. I was very surprised to find the reddit thread showing that other people are also having this specific app silently installed on their devices.
Makes me think something got jacked up adding/removing things from promotional bundles with other apps.
It shouldn’t do that, obviously, but headspace does seem like it’s one that bundles “free” with a bunch of health insurance, education, etc.
From a debugging perspective, without having Apples information, I kinda want to know if all affected users have some related health or education apps.
Maybe Apple typo’d an app id incorrectly for some iOS core app thing in 26.4.2 and the one-character error is this app? I don’t know that anyone’s done a ‘likelihood of collision’ analysis on appstore unique IDs yet. Certainly I could see iOS having a “must be on the device” system set up for apps like Phone and Settings that has a last-ditch of reinstalling it if somehow deleted. Would be especially interesting if some core app that can’t normally be deleted is currently unprotected (back up your device locally first!).
My guess is it's a bug on the App Store side which will actually hurt Headspace in the long run. If this was a casino app I'd feel a bit differently, but I'd be shocked if someone at Headspace did this deliberately.
I'm trying to imagine the headspace of a user who deletes an app, only to see it pop back the next morning. Probably not a very relaxing experience :)
My hypothesis is that headspace registered many user notifications and since user notifications trigger an app launch and perhaps you have optimize storage by offloading apps enabled? ios has a quirky app state where some local data exists but the app itself (ipa package) is offloaded
This is the most interesting idea imo; do you think it’s testable? For example: allow the installed app to persist, turn on notifications, do some stuff to let a queue drain. Then remove.
We've already seen where iOS notifications was storing messages, so it does seem plausible that notifications are involved. Especially as the latest release patches the notifications issue used by law enforcement. It's possible something new was introduced, revealed, etc. The timing feels right
I'm wondering if this has something to do with the iOS Storage Offloading feature, wherein an app that looks like is uninstalled is just offloaded. This would explain why some users see the app in gray waiting to be downloaded.
It was so fucking funny. I wonder what the engineer thought, who had to issue the SQL query which added Bono to literally everyone's collection. Like, I'm not surprised that management was so out of touch, but I'd expect the engineers to have a bit of common sense...
I feel like that's the kind of thing it's easy to not recognise as a terrible idea until after it's done, because so much of what makes it a bad idea is a consequence of the rest of the system.
Imagine if everything else surrounding the Apple ecosystem worked better. Imagine if people who don't actively use Apple Music never experienced Apple Music starting to play music by itself. Imagine if people who do use Apple Music never had an album play without being actively interacted with. Imagine if the album cover wasn't low-key softcore gay porn. Imagine if you could "uninstall" an album you own, like how you can uninstall an app you own and never ever see it again unless you actively go out of your way to search for it on the App Store.
Would it still have been a violation of consent? Sure, yeah it would. But almost everything people complain about is related to how it starts to play when they don't want to (an issue with iOS/macOS and Apple Music that would be annoying regardless), or how the album cover sometimes unintentionally pops up on your screen (such as when you hit the play/pause button on Mac when macOS doesn't think that there's any active paused media, so macOS opens Apple Music), or how there is no way for them to get rid of the album once they own it. These things are pretty large problems regardless of Songs of Innocence.
I can sort of understand an engineer thinking that surely there can't be any major downsides to just giving away a digital good. And if the rest of iOS, macOS's, Apple Music and the album itself didn't have all these issues, it wouldn't have been much of an issue. Again, it would've been a consent violation, but developers at tech companies aren't exactly known for valuing consent anyway and everyone would've certainly forgot it by now.
> Imagine if people who don't actively use Apple Music never experienced Apple Music starting to play music by itself.
Nice dream. My wireless headphones act like in the manual when paired with my phone, but the buttons on them always start apple music when paired with my laptop instead of muting or controlling noise canceling.
"We wanted to deliver a pint of milk to people's front porches, but in a few cases it ended up in their fridge, on their cereal. People were like, 'I'm dairy-free.'" -Bono
Literally imagining the milk man bursting in to dump a gallon of milk on some poor sod's cereal this morning.
Not only that, but the milk man also acts like he did them a huge favor. And hides his huge fortune in a tax haven, while relentlessly campaigning for the government to increase the tax burden on those who actually pay taxes.
I have the same exact thing happening. I deleted the app a few days ago when was surprised to see it in my app list.
I had previously downloaded the app but and removed it because I never used it. A few days ago I noticed the app when browsing through my app list and thought maybe I didnt delete it properly, so I made sure to delete it. Then this morning my iPhone updated software versions and I found he Headpsace app again on my home, except this time it was grayed out and waiting for me to go on wifi to download.
I just deleted it again but am equally dumbfounded
Do you have Settings > Apps > App Store > (Automatic Downloads) App Downloads turned on?
I noticed apps appearing on my Home Screen I’d never heard of before. Turns out with that setting and Family Purchase sharing turned on, every time my wife installed a new app, it installed on my phone too.
That may not be your exact scenario, but I wonder if turning off that Automatic App Downloads setting (if enabled) changes anything. Could give you a clue, if so.
If you can take a sysdiagnose I’m sure it will have the answer in it. If you want to send me one (note: may contain sensitive information) feel free to contact me or any other person you trust who is familiar with iOS stuff?
No jailbreak required, just sideload it with a tool like Sideloadly. There are plenty of games, but it's understandable if you don't want to support Apple's practices.
Yes. In Settings > General > VPN & Device Management, it says 'Sign in to Work or School Account'. Is there a different device management setting that I should be looking at?
This might be a stretch as I am taking a guess at the implementation, but apps can sync with iCloud Drive and I keep getting app folders showing up after telling it not sync but the prefs reset after certain states(not quite sure when/how)-- it then creates a new sync folder when interacting with the app again. (after having turned off sync and deleting the folder -- once it resets)
I am wondering if that app had that feature (icloud drive syncing) and something of the reverse is happening. Where you have a document still on icloud drive from when you installed the app. Maybe there is some action or state change going on after interacting with drive on a mac or something similar. And now it's created the right circumstances for icloud drive to try and sync the file but there is no app on any device so it downloads the app instead since it's missing and there is some dangling file looking for its home.
It still doesn't make sense why the app started silently downloading itself 3 days ago when I haven't had it installed in over a year. I do use iCloud drive but do not see anything related to the app inside of it.
Did you update iOS before it started happening? Wondering if they may have introduced a regression that is now trying to re-sync everything after the last update (sync files may be hidden, I set files to always show)
Looks like something was deployed Thursday evening. My bet is it’s some kind of test configuration for the App Store itself that just happened to pick headspace and it’s rolled into prod by accident
The irony of a meditation mindfulness app becoming a zombie and annoying and distracting thousands of people is palpable. I don’t use the app but it sounds completely off brand!
Do you have MDM enabled on your device? Does your company offer Headspace as a perk and some arcane set of sketchy business agreements led to auto install policy in your company's MDM solution?
Apple struck a partnership with them, they will roll it out as part of their OS, everyone will get some version of it for free? Some dev at Apple is testing the auto rollout feature, they didn’t realize it was for production?
Yesterday I put my AirPod in and squeezed it, expecting Spotify to play - but it must have quit, and instead my mac opened up Music - and that album was STILL there and started to play. How many years has it been?
Just checked and it also installed itself on my phone. iPhone 17 Pro, non-US App Store, on latest iOS beta, no MDM. Sounds like an Apple Store bug to me.
If you've ever installed any companion app on your desktop macOS, your phone will try to sync apps (I think the same with Apple TV). Caught me off guard a few times.
No, I've never downloaded it on my desktop. It appears that I downloaded it onto my phone over a year ago (I got an email in my inbox), but didn't want to pay for it so I deleted it.
The Facebook Ads SDK in a mental health app isn’t normal. Or shouldn’t.
Even analytics SDKs is a bit weird to see. Are Amplitude or Sentry hosting data with a healthcare compliant infrastructure ? I won’t bet. Are those SDKs for sure not leaking health care data? It can be inadvertently, especially with Sentry. But I really wonder about why people feel the need to track so much. Do they **** in front of PowerPoint slides showing the tracking data or is it to sell user data?
They are normal. They generally want to know if the ad spend resulted in an install. Health care data is radioactive and they would be fucking up very hard if sending this to an analytics service.
I have seen studies where some apps were fucking up very hard and sending healthcare data to services that shouldn’t receive it. Sometimes in clear text.
My trust is very low. Having healthcare data in a Sentry payload by mistake happens to the best of us.
Health care companies are radioactively affected by mishandling healthcare data (give or take practical impact being very toothless, especially nowadays). The data itself is mostly not an issue though under any legal theories, and if Joe Schmo hedge fund digs up your colon photos that's not usually an issue.
I’m curious if everyone experiencing this is on 26.4.2? It came out 4 days ago according to Wikipedia…it would make sense that it lines up with when people are seeing it start.
They absolutely do. Some countries mandate some apps that cannot be removed. While Apple doesn't allow carriers to install mandatory bloatware apps, it allows country-specific "national security" apps and background processes that don't have app icons. It's been this way almost forever in pretty much every country that just about every mobile device, it's just Apple has been a bit better for users.
Those articles don't seem to support what you're saying? Russia's apps aren't preinstalled, they're just offered as suggestions, and India never got their app installed. I certainly don't see anything that mentions background processes in either article either.
(I know that installing apps on iOS forces installation of the equivalent watchOS apps; not sure if having a watchOS app installed/running/activating itself forces installation of a "companion" iOS app that it might rely on.)
It's covered in the first 10~20min or so of the game, and is really a minor side point.
Off topic, put P5 as a game doesn't really care about spoilers much, there is one specific story telling gimmick that will screw with you if you're really sensitive to these kind of things.
Isn't it funny that we're so used to the misuse of language (ie lies) that this isn't even a point? I'm talking about software flags to represent your choices, that are merely an 'aspirational intention' and don't actually correlate with reality.
In my world, it shouldn't be possible to override 'turned off automatic downloads'. 'Off' shouldn't be a pacifier for the user, while Apple, Google or whoever can continue installing whatever they like. This isn't what words mean. There isn't actually a choice, but it misleads you into thinking there is. I'm sure there are legal words around this in the "ownership" contract, but "off" can't really mean "on".
i dont know whats up, id assume bug but i wanna say iphone is uniquely annoying to find out what is happening on it and why things happen. they make it especially tedious and that makes it much easier to think this kind of stuff is nefarious even if ut might not be
> Does anyone understand how or why this is happening?
They are drowning in tech debt. Here are two main issues I have with my iPhone/iOS: I can't search for the telegram app. It doesn't show up. It shows fine on the iPad. Also just a few minutes ago, app search decided not to work. I usually use it to pull my Wallet to pull my card. It was an awkward moment as I had no idea where the wallet app actually is.
I have lost count of the minor polish issues. The experience has degraded so much that you no longer care.
Regarding the telegram app I’d check iOS settings->apps->telegram->search and make sure “show app in search” is checked
You can intentionally hide apps from search. If you did this, it’s not very obvious that its hidden from search unless you dig for the setting. Similarly, “hidden” apps refuse to show up in search results anywhere, even in settings.
I just checked that I could see it in the Settings App search bar, but it does not show up under the actual App Store settings page, might be an implementation bug related to user region.
Edit 1: this was on iPadOS 26.3.1 (a) (23D771330a)
Now you understand how it feels to be reminded that the device you "bought" from Apple isn't actually yours as they still have control over it, and if they decide to do something you don't want, you're powerless to stop them.
I would imagine that this isn't (or at least shouldn't be) possible based on Apple's security. The app is automatically downloading to my phone without my permission.
This isn't the first system bug that primarily was visible due to headspace: https://www.macrumors.com/2017/12/02/ios-11-1-2-date-bug-cra...
In 2017 it was an endless crash loop caused by any app with local time-based notifications.... Which for almost everyone at the Apple store I visited was meditation apps with daily meditation reminders (in Australia we were among the first to wake up on that affected date. The fix went out before most of the remaining world woke up)
I wonder if the daily reminder is triggering a reinstall? Perhaps try disabling the reminders before uninstalling.
Here's a Reddit thread of other people experiencing the same issue: https://www.reddit.com/r/ios/comments/1su82sc/headspace_app_...
This is fascinating. I am very curious to find out what the actual cause of this turns out to be.
It downloaded itself on my phone as well. I thought it was some quirk with the Apple Watch sync because I used to have headspace installed at some point and that automatically shows up on the Apple Watch but deleting an app on the iPhone doesn’t always delete the corresponding Apple Watch app. So if you open headspace on the Apple Watch I assumed it redownloaded itself on the iPhone.
same. i get blasted with ads for this app on whatever platform, never installed it myself. the amount of promotions + this = my underdeveloped brain is so ready to assume the worst here. been a while since i used my pitchfork & i'm here for the riot.
if it is, in fact, something nefarious at play that would be a pretty crazy 2026 era exploit. but i'm certain it's a bug/artifact of some sort that, for whatever reason, affects this specific app.
Maybe the developer was using Headspace as part of the test data and it bled into production?
It's hard to imagine what Headspace would like to achieve if this were an exploit executed by them. It's so salient, that it makes no sense to do on purpose. At least some portion of Apple employees and their families are going to be affected by this, and this would escalate to the legal department immediately.
My money is on Apple being the buggy one here.
> My money is on Apple being the buggy one here.
Yeah I'm thinking some sort of test artifact bleeding into prod and subject so some nightly process is likely the case.
This seems like a good guess. Seems like it was deployed Thursday based on the app reviews
I feel sorry for the headspace devs if it's really 100% Apple's fault.
I wish Apple released incident reports in cases like these. I hate that their secrecy obsession extends so far beyond hardware.
when "explaining a thing, no more assumptions should be made than are necessary."
could be an ios bug; a bug with the notification library they use, any other app behaving similarly?
considering the possibility this was on purpose, they would risk getting banned from the appstore. no, they are not big enough to avoid that. so it's unlikely this was intentional.
Based on that I'd guess either a meditation app company has figured out how to circumvent a lot of controls put in place by Apple, or it's a bug on Apple's side
Yeah, I think the latter is more likely than the former. Perhaps a server side bug that's silently downloading the app on any device that's installed it previously?
But why this one specific app and no others?
Maybe it’s like that time Apple thought everyone wanted that awful free U2 album that they automatically added to everyone’s iTunes library. (I know this isn’t actually the case but it’s the funniest explanation)
Can’t be sure it isn’t others. This a very large app, so it may just be the one that gets noticed the most.
Maybe it’s Apple’s equivalent of Guru Meditation.
Right, that's what confuses me the most. I was very surprised to find the reddit thread showing that other people are also having this specific app silently installed on their devices.
Makes me think something got jacked up adding/removing things from promotional bundles with other apps.
It shouldn’t do that, obviously, but headspace does seem like it’s one that bundles “free” with a bunch of health insurance, education, etc.
From a debugging perspective, without having Apples information, I kinda want to know if all affected users have some related health or education apps.
Maybe Apple typo’d an app id incorrectly for some iOS core app thing in 26.4.2 and the one-character error is this app? I don’t know that anyone’s done a ‘likelihood of collision’ analysis on appstore unique IDs yet. Certainly I could see iOS having a “must be on the device” system set up for apps like Phone and Settings that has a last-ditch of reinstalling it if somehow deleted. Would be especially interesting if some core app that can’t normally be deleted is currently unprotected (back up your device locally first!).
Headspace leaves health data, that's where my first guess would be
My guess is it's a bug on the App Store side which will actually hurt Headspace in the long run. If this was a casino app I'd feel a bit differently, but I'd be shocked if someone at Headspace did this deliberately.
I'm trying to imagine the headspace of a user who deletes an app, only to see it pop back the next morning. Probably not a very relaxing experience :)
Or it is a mandated backdoor, and someone internally objected, and made it easier to exploit than it should be, or leaked how to exploit it?
> mandated backdoor
Probably one from the repository of backdoors "accidentally" introduced or "never" discovered.
The mechanism's there, just needs to be woven with other exploits.
what's the more likely explanation though?
Makes no sense for headspace to be using it if that were the case.
looks like, no where its safea anymore
My hypothesis is that headspace registered many user notifications and since user notifications trigger an app launch and perhaps you have optimize storage by offloading apps enabled? ios has a quirky app state where some local data exists but the app itself (ipa package) is offloaded
This is the most interesting idea imo; do you think it’s testable? For example: allow the installed app to persist, turn on notifications, do some stuff to let a queue drain. Then remove.
In which case, perhaps the app doesn't correctly remove notifications on delete which would mean Headspace could be to blame?
We've already seen where iOS notifications was storing messages, so it does seem plausible that notifications are involved. Especially as the latest release patches the notifications issue used by law enforcement. It's possible something new was introduced, revealed, etc. The timing feels right
There’s no indication to the developer or app when a deletion happens. We rely on the OS to clean it up.
Agreed, this is an interesting idea. I just checked and offloading unused apps is disabled on my phone
I'm wondering if this has something to do with the iOS Storage Offloading feature, wherein an app that looks like is uninstalled is just offloaded. This would explain why some users see the app in gray waiting to be downloaded.
I wonder if U2, or Bono, has taken a significant stake in Headspace recently (kidding).
I feel like I’m the only one who listened to that album when it appeared and thought it was pretty good
It's not good four my blood pressure to be reminded of that sanctimonious tax-dodging hypocrite.
Have you considered meditation? ;-)
A 50th anniversary gift you mean?
Deep cut
Jesus, I hope not. That happened just a few years ago... right?
More than a decade ago
Wasn’t that around the release of the iPhone X?
iPhone X? That came out this year didn't it?
No, you’re thinking of the iPad Touch
I'm pretty sure it was last year, when the "no new features, bugfixes only" MacOS version was released.
It was so fucking funny. I wonder what the engineer thought, who had to issue the SQL query which added Bono to literally everyone's collection. Like, I'm not surprised that management was so out of touch, but I'd expect the engineers to have a bit of common sense...
And do what? Quit and have someone else execute the query for something that’s in the grand scheme of things irrelevant?
I feel like that's the kind of thing it's easy to not recognise as a terrible idea until after it's done, because so much of what makes it a bad idea is a consequence of the rest of the system.
Imagine if everything else surrounding the Apple ecosystem worked better. Imagine if people who don't actively use Apple Music never experienced Apple Music starting to play music by itself. Imagine if people who do use Apple Music never had an album play without being actively interacted with. Imagine if the album cover wasn't low-key softcore gay porn. Imagine if you could "uninstall" an album you own, like how you can uninstall an app you own and never ever see it again unless you actively go out of your way to search for it on the App Store.
Would it still have been a violation of consent? Sure, yeah it would. But almost everything people complain about is related to how it starts to play when they don't want to (an issue with iOS/macOS and Apple Music that would be annoying regardless), or how the album cover sometimes unintentionally pops up on your screen (such as when you hit the play/pause button on Mac when macOS doesn't think that there's any active paused media, so macOS opens Apple Music), or how there is no way for them to get rid of the album once they own it. These things are pretty large problems regardless of Songs of Innocence.
I can sort of understand an engineer thinking that surely there can't be any major downsides to just giving away a digital good. And if the rest of iOS, macOS's, Apple Music and the album itself didn't have all these issues, it wouldn't have been much of an issue. Again, it would've been a consent violation, but developers at tech companies aren't exactly known for valuing consent anyway and everyone would've certainly forgot it by now.
> Imagine if people who don't actively use Apple Music never experienced Apple Music starting to play music by itself.
Nice dream. My wireless headphones act like in the manual when paired with my phone, but the buttons on them always start apple music when paired with my laptop instead of muting or controlling noise canceling.
What he was going to do, ignore management ? There is always someone else clueless or not caring enough to do it
"We wanted to deliver a pint of milk to people's front porches, but in a few cases it ended up in their fridge, on their cereal. People were like, 'I'm dairy-free.'" -Bono
Literally imagining the milk man bursting in to dump a gallon of milk on some poor sod's cereal this morning.
Not only that, but the milk man also acts like he did them a huge favor. And hides his huge fortune in a tax haven, while relentlessly campaigning for the government to increase the tax burden on those who actually pay taxes.
Have you ever worked at a big company? There are plenty of people who don’t give a shit and just do whatever their boss tells them.
They follow orders, like soldiers do.
I have the same exact thing happening. I deleted the app a few days ago when was surprised to see it in my app list.
I had previously downloaded the app but and removed it because I never used it. A few days ago I noticed the app when browsing through my app list and thought maybe I didnt delete it properly, so I made sure to delete it. Then this morning my iPhone updated software versions and I found he Headpsace app again on my home, except this time it was grayed out and waiting for me to go on wifi to download.
I just deleted it again but am equally dumbfounded
That's interesting that it still showed up on your homescreen despite not being able to download
Do you have Settings > Apps > App Store > (Automatic Downloads) App Downloads turned on?
I noticed apps appearing on my Home Screen I’d never heard of before. Turns out with that setting and Family Purchase sharing turned on, every time my wife installed a new app, it installed on my phone too.
That may not be your exact scenario, but I wonder if turning off that Automatic App Downloads setting (if enabled) changes anything. Could give you a clue, if so.
App Downloads and App Updates are both turned off. I don't have anyone else's devices on my account, just me. Thank you for the suggestions though!
Even with auto downloads turned off, does it show up in your app library or as a purchased app?
You can still have a app library with apps that "should be" downloaded, what happens if its removed from that list?
Sounds like it's messing with your head.
If you can take a sysdiagnose I’m sure it will have the answer in it. If you want to send me one (note: may contain sensitive information) feel free to contact me or any other person you trust who is familiar with iOS stuff?
Very interesting, especially if it found a way to bypass the explicit disabling of automatic downloads…
Now imagine you’re roaming during a 10-day vacation…and you think you’re in control :) …
Meanwhile, I can't install an iOS game i bought in 2021 (Azure Saga if it matters) because it's delisted from the app store.
Damned if you pay them, damned if you don't.
Took me a minute but I found it https://archive.org/download/iklassika_archive/AzureSagaPath...
Probably requires a jailbroken ipad?
I'll take it as a lesson to not even look at games on iOS [1]. I added it to my wish list on Steam, i might get it on a sale.
[1] Not that iOS has many games. I can't afford the free ones.
No jailbreak required, just sideload it with a tool like Sideloadly. There are plenty of games, but it's understandable if you don't want to support Apple's practices.
Didn't know that tool existed, thanks for that! I assume it's using the development features in order to bypass protections?
Yep, there's some mention of automatically resigning the apps every 10 days so it's definitely using the dev tools.
Is your phone connected to some work mobile device management? I could imagine someone has a jinxed Jamf or intune rule that is pushing things out.
No, this is my personal device. It has never been connected to any MDM.
Have you actually checked your device management settings?
Yes. In Settings > General > VPN & Device Management, it says 'Sign in to Work or School Account'. Is there a different device management setting that I should be looking at?
That's the one. I was worried you might have something you didn't know about!
Yes, there are alt app stores that try to get you to agree to installing a MDM
I would call Apple support; you might even get an engineer call you back. I am sure they would love to know what the hell is going on.
Do you use iCloud drive?
This might be a stretch as I am taking a guess at the implementation, but apps can sync with iCloud Drive and I keep getting app folders showing up after telling it not sync but the prefs reset after certain states(not quite sure when/how)-- it then creates a new sync folder when interacting with the app again. (after having turned off sync and deleting the folder -- once it resets)
I am wondering if that app had that feature (icloud drive syncing) and something of the reverse is happening. Where you have a document still on icloud drive from when you installed the app. Maybe there is some action or state change going on after interacting with drive on a mac or something similar. And now it's created the right circumstances for icloud drive to try and sync the file but there is no app on any device so it downloads the app instead since it's missing and there is some dangling file looking for its home.
It still doesn't make sense why the app started silently downloading itself 3 days ago when I haven't had it installed in over a year. I do use iCloud drive but do not see anything related to the app inside of it.
Did you update iOS before it started happening? Wondering if they may have introduced a regression that is now trying to re-sync everything after the last update (sync files may be hidden, I set files to always show)
I updated after noticing the issue
The iOS reviews for the app also confirm this story affecting others.
Looks like something was deployed Thursday evening. My bet is it’s some kind of test configuration for the App Store itself that just happened to pick headspace and it’s rolled into prod by accident
Did you ever install it, or Ginger?
An app store search also turned up "Headspace Care" (Ginger)
Ginger is now Headspace Care
It would be beyond malware for an app to install itself, since there's that app store hurdle to leap. (IMO)
I installed the app in March of last year, and then deleted it the same day because I didn't want to pay for the subscription
The irony of a meditation mindfulness app becoming a zombie and annoying and distracting thousands of people is palpable. I don’t use the app but it sounds completely off brand!
Do you have MDM enabled on your device? Does your company offer Headspace as a perk and some arcane set of sketchy business agreements led to auto install policy in your company's MDM solution?
No MDM installed
Just a theory, I give it about 0.001%.
What if it’s the U2 Bono of the apps?
Apple struck a partnership with them, they will roll it out as part of their OS, everyone will get some version of it for free? Some dev at Apple is testing the auto rollout feature, they didn’t realize it was for production?
Yesterday I put my AirPod in and squeezed it, expecting Spotify to play - but it must have quit, and instead my mac opened up Music - and that album was STILL there and started to play. How many years has it been?
Just checked and it also installed itself on my phone. iPhone 17 Pro, non-US App Store, on latest iOS beta, no MDM. Sounds like an Apple Store bug to me.
Ever had it installed before? I wonder if that's a pattern.
Definitely the strongest pattern.
I did
You had previously installed this application?
If you've ever installed any companion app on your desktop macOS, your phone will try to sync apps (I think the same with Apple TV). Caught me off guard a few times.
No, I've never downloaded it on my desktop. It appears that I downloaded it onto my phone over a year ago (I got an email in my inbox), but didn't want to pay for it so I deleted it.
If anyone wants to browse some of the SDKs in headspace:
https://appgoblin.info/apps/493145008/sdks
I see normal development and tracking SDKs. If anyone sees something interesting let me know.
The Facebook Ads SDK in a mental health app isn’t normal. Or shouldn’t.
Even analytics SDKs is a bit weird to see. Are Amplitude or Sentry hosting data with a healthcare compliant infrastructure ? I won’t bet. Are those SDKs for sure not leaking health care data? It can be inadvertently, especially with Sentry. But I really wonder about why people feel the need to track so much. Do they **** in front of PowerPoint slides showing the tracking data or is it to sell user data?
They are normal. They generally want to know if the ad spend resulted in an install. Health care data is radioactive and they would be fucking up very hard if sending this to an analytics service.
I have seen studies where some apps were fucking up very hard and sending healthcare data to services that shouldn’t receive it. Sometimes in clear text.
My trust is very low. Having healthcare data in a Sentry payload by mistake happens to the best of us.
Health care companies are radioactively affected by mishandling healthcare data (give or take practical impact being very toothless, especially nowadays). The data itself is mostly not an issue though under any legal theories, and if Joe Schmo hedge fund digs up your colon photos that's not usually an issue.
I never thought there would be online SDK databases, what a useful resource in general. Thank you.
I think it's worth mentioning that you had the app installed around a year ago, as I can imagine some "restore from backup" scenario at play.
I'm currently with a 13 mini (26.4.2), never had this app installed, and am not encountering this issue.
This appears to be a more widespread issue affecting users that have previously installed the app
Had this happen as well. I haven’t used Headspace in years. Randomly had the app appear on Home Screen.
I’m curious if everyone experiencing this is on 26.4.2? It came out 4 days ago according to Wikipedia…it would make sense that it lines up with when people are seeing it start.
I’m on the 26.5 beta and not seeing it at all.
I was on 26.3.X when it began happening, prior to updating
Possible this is tied to your carrier?
I don’t think carriers have the ability to install apps on iOS. I’ve always thought it’s weird that they can do that on android.
They absolutely do. Some countries mandate some apps that cannot be removed. While Apple doesn't allow carriers to install mandatory bloatware apps, it allows country-specific "national security" apps and background processes that don't have app icons. It's been this way almost forever in pretty much every country that just about every mobile device, it's just Apple has been a bit better for users.
https://www.wired.com/story/apple-russia-iphone-apps-law/
https://9to5mac.com/2025/12/03/after-apple-refusal-indian-go...
Those articles don't seem to support what you're saying? Russia's apps aren't preinstalled, they're just offered as suggestions, and India never got their app installed. I certainly don't see anything that mentions background processes in either article either.
What? Sounds like a US thing?
Does it happen when WiFi and mobile data are disabled? Try disabling them an hour or so before 1pm EST.
If it still appears then it was never removed in the first place, which is a very different bug to it installing itself.
Do you have an Apple Watch paired to this iPhone?
(I know that installing apps on iOS forces installation of the equivalent watchOS apps; not sure if having a watchOS app installed/running/activating itself forces installation of a "companion" iOS app that it might rely on.)
this is the plot of Persona 5
He can be the joker we need.
how heavy of a spoiler is this? I wanted to play it
It's not really a spoiler. It is something that happens near the beginning of the game.
It's covered in the first 10~20min or so of the game, and is really a minor side point.
Off topic, put P5 as a game doesn't really care about spoilers much, there is one specific story telling gimmick that will screw with you if you're really sensitive to these kind of things.
If I am not mistaken, it's even shown in the marketing materials to build suspense.
Side point, re this:
> Automatic downloads are turned off
Isn't it funny that we're so used to the misuse of language (ie lies) that this isn't even a point? I'm talking about software flags to represent your choices, that are merely an 'aspirational intention' and don't actually correlate with reality.
In my world, it shouldn't be possible to override 'turned off automatic downloads'. 'Off' shouldn't be a pacifier for the user, while Apple, Google or whoever can continue installing whatever they like. This isn't what words mean. There isn't actually a choice, but it misleads you into thinking there is. I'm sure there are legal words around this in the "ownership" contract, but "off" can't really mean "on".
Same here. I had installed Headspace long ago and deleted it. It's now reappearing if I delete it.
Do you have TestFlight installed? That’s the only other way I can think of delivering apps besides the App Store and MDM.
i dont know whats up, id assume bug but i wanna say iphone is uniquely annoying to find out what is happening on it and why things happen. they make it especially tedious and that makes it much easier to think this kind of stuff is nefarious even if ut might not be
> Does anyone understand how or why this is happening?
They are drowning in tech debt. Here are two main issues I have with my iPhone/iOS: I can't search for the telegram app. It doesn't show up. It shows fine on the iPad. Also just a few minutes ago, app search decided not to work. I usually use it to pull my Wallet to pull my card. It was an awkward moment as I had no idea where the wallet app actually is.
I have lost count of the minor polish issues. The experience has degraded so much that you no longer care.
Regarding the telegram app I’d check iOS settings->apps->telegram->search and make sure “show app in search” is checked
You can intentionally hide apps from search. If you did this, it’s not very obvious that its hidden from search unless you dig for the setting. Similarly, “hidden” apps refuse to show up in search results anywhere, even in settings.
Thank you for this, I have wondered for more than a year why Google Maps would not show up when I searched for it.
Thank you. I wonder how that happened as I was not aware such a feature existed.
@_-x-_: "Settings > App Store > Show Install Confirmations > On".
Maybe that helps?
This setting does not exist on iOS 26.4.1
It should:
- https://old.reddit.com/r/iPadOS/comments/1prkpaq/can_i_turn_...
- https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd....
I just checked that I could see it in the Settings App search bar, but it does not show up under the actual App Store settings page, might be an implementation bug related to user region.
Edit 1: this was on iPadOS 26.3.1 (a) (23D771330a)
How did you find that? Any notification?
It just appears on my homescreen
I’ve been getting this too, same app same behaviour… Anyone been able to figure out what is causing this?
Have you downloaded the app before?
_Severance intensifies_
This is clearly bug in "automatic updates are turned off" feature, and the fix should be made there.
Now imagine if they added some AI feature and it’s trying to escape
its mythos! bet its found a flaw in ios and the app store and new devs are taking advantage of the flaw!!
Are other people using your phone?
No
Now you understand how it feels to be reminded that the device you "bought" from Apple isn't actually yours as they still have control over it, and if they decide to do something you don't want, you're powerless to stop them.
jailbreak phone?
Negative
Maybe a competitor is trying to FUD them?
I would imagine that this isn't (or at least shouldn't be) possible based on Apple's security. The app is automatically downloading to my phone without my permission.