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Notifications & badges 1:07
A 67-second explainer of Notifications & badges, narrated over the same demo you can try yourself.
Try the interactive Notifications & badges demo
What this video covers
Notifications and badges are signals that something needs attention - a count on an icon, a dot, a banner, a push alert. Used honestly they inform: "you have 3 unread messages". Used cynically they manufacture urgency and pull people back for the company's benefit, and either way they only keep their power if they're meaningful, because people quickly learn to ignore signals that cry wolf.
The honest badge told you something true and useful - three real unread messages - so it earned the glance. The manufactured one was a red dot with nothing behind it, engineered to nag you back. Same pixel, opposite intent. That's the line with notifications and badges: a signal that genuinely informs is welcome; one that fakes urgency or cries wolf trains people to ignore you - and erodes trust.
