_-x-_

This appears to be a more widespread issue affecting users that have previously installed the app

I was on 26.3.X when it began happening, prior to updating

No

Agreed, this is an interesting idea. I just checked and offloading unused apps is disabled on my phone

I updated after noticing the issue

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.

That's interesting that it still showed up on your homescreen despite not being able to download

No MDM installed

Negative

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.

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!

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?

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?

Have you downloaded the app before?