Facebook admits red dot notifications are annoying, may soon let you disable them

There's no official word on why this is being done, but a Facebook rep told TechCrunchthat the endeavor is "related to the work we’re doing with the well-being team. We’re thinking about how people spend their time in the app and making sure that it’s time well spent." The report further claims that the change could be in effort to reduce some of the anxiety that's been connected to red dot-style mobile notifications. These notification badges have been designed the way they are, after years of research, in order to maximize the possibility of the user engaging with them. However, this "growth hack" has backfired to some extent, in that many users now often feel overwhelmed by the badges—especially if they also display the number of missed notifications—and are less likely to tap on them.

Facebook is looking to mitigate this by allowing users to customize what notifications they see in the Facebook mobile app. Of course, total freedom is out of the question, but going forward, you may be able to turn off the red dots on the Watch, Profile, Groups, and Menu tabs in the Facebook app.

"People don’t necessarily want to see a notification on the badge [the in-app dots on tabs] if they’re already getting notifications in the jewel [the red counter on the Facebook app icon on your phone’s homescreen]" a Facebook spokesperson told TechCrunch.

The feature has already entered the testing stages, but is not yet widely available. If it passes, it's likely going to roll out to everyone in the coming months,and will be located Menu > Settings & Privacy > Settings > Notifications > Notification Dots.