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Every now and then I see this little red dot on the tab (which I'm assuming is shown to indicate a new incoming/unread email). I use the web version of Outlook FWIW.
However, when I switch back to the tab, I do not see any new emails. Refreshing the page also doesn't help. It happens very frequently - like 5-10 times a day during a shift.
What is Outlook trying to tell me?
Yeah, that's frustrating. it supposed to be an alert that you have new unread mail, but for me, it seems to also mean new unread 'what's new' too. just to the left my name icon, in the upper right corner, is an icon that looks like trapezoid, or a bullhorn speaker,...click on that and acknowledge the news by scrolling through the list of items. then click to exit. now you might see, like I did, my red dot go away!
I've been getting that too. I just scrolled to the top of my folder list and clicked on Inbox (even though I was already in my Inbox) and the dot cleared and hasn't come back.
Seems even though I had no new emails, and was already in my Inbox, just acknowledging it in the system by CLICKING inbox, was enough to clear it. Let's hope it lasts!
It's absolutely a ploy to get you to click on the tab when the advertisement changes/refreshes. The point of the favicon changing (on every other site in the world) is to let you know you have a new notification (in this case, an email) to view. In Microsoft's case, they're telling you they want you to see another marketing link. I stopped using Microsoft as my primary email years ago due to this because I couldn't trust it to keep it open in a tab all day. I still check it a couple times per day, but it's never open in the background anymore because the red dot clickbait has been an effective way to scare me off their platform.
Going to chime in and agree with the other commenters. The red dot shows up when the advertisement on the side of your screen changes in your inbox. Very annoying! It seems like Microsoft has a couple employees downvoting everyone who brings this up too lol. Add me to the list of people who have moved to another email service due to this!
I muted the Outlook tab, and it appeared to stop showing the red dot for a time. Personally I think MS are not doing anything to stop the red dot, even though lots of users request they disable it.
My guess it that it appears to get to you look at the tab, for advertising purposes. i.e. it's intentional by Outlook
