Apple is finally going to tell you when you download a bad app

We have some great news for all you app-lovers out there: Apple has got your back.

Recently, several apps were infected with a nasty virus known as XcodeGhost (which sounds 0%  pleasant). So far, 39 of these apps have been identified, but some believe that this number could be much higher. Among the affected programs are several of China’s favorite apps, including Angry Birds 2, WeChat, and transportation service Didi Chuxing. But don’t worry, many companies have fixed this issue and those who haven’t? Well, their products are currently unavailable in the App Store.

“We’re working closely with developers to get impacted apps back on the App Store as quickly as possible for customers to enjoy,” explained Apple. “A list of the top 25 most popular apps impacted will be listed soon so users can easily verify if they have downloaded the latest versions of these apps. After the top 25 impacted apps, the number of impacted users drops significantly.”

Most importantly, Apple will let customers know if they’ve been affected by this issue. Then, users can wait for developers to update the app and can then apply the update to get the malware off their phone.

Unfortunately, security companies believe that app users’ personal information could be compromised. On the other hand, Apple has said that there’s no evidence of this: “We’re not aware of personally identifiable customer data being impacted and the code also did not have the ability to request customer credentials to gain iCloud and other service passwords,” said the tech company. “Malicious code could only have been able to deliver some general information such as the apps and general system information.”

To go above and beyond, Apple hopes to make coding easier for developers (since that’s how this problem started). Since downloading Xcode (a coding software) is an incredibly slow process in China, people tend to look elsewhere for this software (i.e. not on the Apple website). To address this issue, the company will be working to making downloading much faster, but – in the meantime – they encourage everyone to only download this program from the Mac App Store.

The takeaway: if you’re in the mood to download a new app, check here first.

[Image via iStock]