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Chrome Mysteriously Installed

S.B.G

S.B.G

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Original poster
I just found Google Chrome installed on my iPhone this morning. It wasn’t there last night and I’ve never installed it before on my current iPhone.

The only Google product I intentionally installed was YouTube and that was last year when I bought the 17 Pro.

Has anyone else had this happen to them?
 
S.B.G said:
I just found Google Chrome installed on my iPhone this morning. It wasn’t there last night and I’ve never installed it before on my current iPhone.

The only Google product I intentionally installed was YouTube and that was last year when I bought the 17 Pro.

Has anyone else had this happen to them?
Click to expand...
Could it have been bundled with some kind of installer? Did it come with YouTube? It is pretty sneaky on Windows so maybe they're "being evil" with iPhones now, too.
 
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Not really sure. I haven't installed any apps lately on the iPhone, only ran updates. I was trying to open a file in Slack the other day, but I thought I was doing that on my work iPhone. Maybe when it wanted an app to open the file I must have not realized it offered Chrome and I tapped it and it downloaded.

Occam's Razor says that is the most likely way it ended up on my phone. I'm just having a hard time remembering it specifically!

I just wondered initially if Apple pushed it out as part of some deal with Google, much like they did that to all of us with the U2 album.
 
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I was browsing last night and I saw a box with a prompt to install Chrome, luckily I caught it in time, sorry I don’t remember where or what I was looking at, but it looked easy to click on it by accident.
 
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S.B.G said:
I just found Google Chrome installed on my iPhone this morning. It wasn’t there last night and I’ve never installed it before on my current iPhone.

The only Google product I intentionally installed was YouTube and that was last year when I bought the 17 Pro.

Has anyone else had this happen to them?
Click to expand...
When that happens, it's usually caused by non-sober me. Sober me usually has to uninstall a few things now and again after non-sober me gets a wild idea.
 
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Is your Apple Account shared with someone else? If so, did they download it on their device, causing it to automatically download on yours? (You can turn that setting off in the App Store settings.)

Also, out of curiosity, does it show has the most recent downloaded app in the App Library? It would be the top-left icon in the 'Recently Added' section. If it doesn't, then it may have been on your phone for a while and you're somehow just noticing it now.
 
No shared account, just me. As for the app library, it isn't showing because I've already deleted it.

I'm pretty sure it happened when I was working in Slack and a document I was opening. I just didn't notice what I tapped.
 
Happened once on iPad Pro M4. NFS No Limits automatically installed after an OS update. I formatted the device before the upgrade.
Not sure but might be sync or currupt DB issue which I heard at that time which was restoring very old deleted photos for lot of users.

But your case seems to be different because you never downloaded chrome and if you download any app for the first time it asks for confirmation.
 
It's possible that you tapped a Google Workspace (Office? Whatever they call it) file and it "works best with Chrome," so it took the liberty of installing it for you. I don't know what else it could be. I checked my phone and Mac just now and I don't have them installed. If that truly was a drive-by download, it should be illegal.
 
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boswald said:
It's possible that you tapped a Google Workspace (Office? Whatever they call it) file and it "works best with Chrome," so it took the liberty of installing it for you. I don't know what else it could be. I checked my phone and Mac just now and I don't have them installed. If that truly was a drive-by download, it should be illegal.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's what I am thinking too. It makes the most logical sense.
 
I think - not sure - if you reinstall it, applications like iMazing can give the general time it was installed, to triangulate.
I think I’ve only had this happen once or twice in 15 years.
 
In terms of sequence of things, don't you usually have to approve any apps install with touch/face/pw confirm before it starts install from the App Store?
 
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Omega Mac said:
In terms of defence of things, don't you usually have to approve any apps install with touch/face/pw confirm before it starts install from the App Store?
Click to expand...
Correct. However, at some point in the history of my account, I did download Chrome and so to reinstall it, you don't have to verify.
 
True story: last week I heard of an update to an app that I wanted to download right away. So I went to App Store on my iPhone and pulled updates to all my apps.

Updates downloaded... but weirdly - also what downloaded was Google search app, right on my home screen.

I do not remember ever downloading Google Search app and it definitely was not on my home screen. I never had such a thing happen, I found it really weird.

One of the apps that did download the update at that time was Google Maps (the only Google app I have on my phone). I have it sitting in one of app folders and that is where it updated. But I have no clue why Google Search was also downloaded / installed at the same time?

So my question to you: did another of Google apps get updated at around the same time?

(Personal phone, no MDM or anything like that)
 
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