How does an OLDER version of an app know to ask for a NEWER version? (Cellular-Z)

[GalaxyA325G]

1. I noticed the latest versions of Cellular-Z seems to have ads
even though the Google Play Store page for it says it doesn't have ads.
Cellular-Z by JerseyHo
Free, no ads, requires GSF, rated 3.9, 1.77K reviews, 100K+ Downloads
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=make.more.r2d2.cellular_z>

2. I don't remember the older versions having ads.

3. So I delete the version 6.0 Cellular-Z on my phone.

4. And I install an older 5.3 version I archived 3/8/2020.
Name: Cellular-Z-5.3_make.more.r2d2.cellular_z-55.apk
Size: 13223057 bytes (12 MiB)
SHA256: F4FCC19797AF649A66C6A9036FA16F177BA3DE0EE7702B9137D0F7C9E98264A3

5. When I run it, it puts up an unremovable demand to upgrade to 6.2.2

6. So I delete that and try an even older version 3.3 APK from 9/23/2019.
Name: Cellular-Z-3.3_make.more.r2d2.cellular_z-33.apk
Size: 10568133 bytes (10 MiB)
SHA256: 0C83C89EFF40D4048AAB3A2AFD726488A37D2FECF78F71EEA37327B72BAB0CD4

7. Same darn thing.

How the heck does the _older_ version know to do that?
And how can I NOT upgrade to the newer 6.2.2 version?

Note that it doesn't do it if I put the phone in airplane mode, and turn on the GPS radio, or if I then turn on the Wi-Fi radio but don't connect to an access point, and if I turn on cellular (but not cellular data) - but the forced update prompt happens when I connect to the Internet.

I was hoping turning off the net and pressing UPGRADE would make it go away but it didn't change anything.

 

[Droidriven]

1. I noticed the latest versions of Cellular-Z seems to have ads
even though the Google Play Store page for it says it doesn't have ads.
Cellular-Z by JerseyHo
Free, no ads, requires GSF, rated 3.9, 1.77K reviews, 100K+ Downloads
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=make.more.r2d2.cellular_z>

2. I don't remember the older versions having ads.

3. So I delete the version 6.0 Cellular-Z on my phone.

4. And I install an older 5.3 version I archived 3/8/2020.
Name: Cellular-Z-5.3_make.more.r2d2.cellular_z-55.apk
Size: 13223057 bytes (12 MiB)
SHA256: F4FCC19797AF649A66C6A9036FA16F177BA3DE0EE7702B9137D0F7C9E98264A3

5. When I run it, it puts up an unremovable demand to upgrade to 6.2.2

6. So I delete that and try an even older version 3.3 APK from 9/23/2019.
Name: Cellular-Z-3.3_make.more.r2d2.cellular_z-33.apk
Size: 10568133 bytes (10 MiB)
SHA256: 0C83C89EFF40D4048AAB3A2AFD726488A37D2FECF78F71EEA37327B72BAB0CD4

7. Same darn thing.

How the heck does the _older_ version know to do that?
And how can I NOT upgrade to the newer 6.2.2 version?

Note that it doesn't do it if I put the phone in airplane mode, and turn on the GPS radio, or if I then turn on the Wi-Fi radio but don't connect to an access point, and if I turn on cellular (but not cellular data) - but the forced update prompt happens when I connect to the Internet.

I was hoping turning off the net and pressing UPGRADE would make it go away but it didn't change anything.

The developer that built it put a code in it to scan for updates, as long as it is connected to a network, it is going to detect that there is an update available.