So I heard there was a new version of the itch client available so I booted it up and saw it looked the same. I refreshed it and it still was on 23.6.3 and said 'up to date'. 

Do I have to update to v25 manually? I guess its not a huge issue but it'll be confusing to people and they'll never really know there's an update

The new app uses a different update system and will require a manual update. We're doing slow roll out to catch any issues, so we haven't added a banner for old app users yet. https://itch.io/t/295966/does-v25-need-a-manual-update

In order to update the app you'll have to download the latest version from https://itch.io/app, there is not going  to be an autoupdate for version 23. Installing the new version will migrate your library and information over.