Users report a UX issue in Discourse’s personal chat system where opening a new or existing chat—without sending a message—triggers a green unread notification badge for the other participant. This causes confusion and can create an infinite loop of false notifications: when User A opens the chat, User B sees a badge; User B clicks it, sees no message, and then User A gets a badge, and so on. kristof_vk provides screenshots and examples, confirming the behavior occurs even with no prior chat history. Moin suggests it might be misinterpreted as an online indicator, but kristof_vk clarifies the badge disappears only upon reading the chat, which contradicts typical online status behavior. j.jaffeux acknowledges the issue is known internally and non-trivial to fix, noting recent refactoring efforts are steps toward resolving it. Canapin merges related topics to consolidate discussion. The core problem is that chat creation or opening—not message sending—triggers notifications, leading to misleading and disruptive UX.
Hello,
I think creating the personal chat works a bit odd now. I mean, if userA creates a new personal chat but hasn’t posted anything to the channel, then to userB show up an unread green (1) badge which is in this case indicates that a new personal channel has been created?
I think it would be better if the new channel is only created for userB when userA sent the first message.
Thanks 
This is also in our internal listing, hopefully I can adress this soon 
@j.jaffeux I think this is long fixed by now, no?
No it’s not. It’s non trivial to fix. I have started work on this and a lot of refactoring of last months are steps towards this.
I have the same issue, it’s hella annoying 
Same when you have personal chats on the left side, and click it, the other person gets the notification and when they click it, see nothing, then I get the notification… #infiniteLoop
Maybe this could be less trivial?
We’ve come across a funny bug so whenever I open the chat box towards my friend Simon, but I do NOT type anything. He gets a notification (green circle ball) next to our chat window.
If he checks his messages, he obviously doesn’t see anything because I haven’t typed anything. BUT this makes it so that I get a green circle next to his name. Resulting into an infinite loop of chat notifications without writing any chat messages.
I’ve had it a few times with different people now.
I have the impression you misinterpret the online indicator as a message indicator. The online indicator appears as soon as you open the chat
Not at all.
Also next post has an example of having a chat notification the same way without having any chat ongoing.
Another example from another user: (this was our first chat ever so I didn’t even have a personal chat window on the left side open)
I also see this:
If I click it, it just opens a chat where there is no new message.
Sorry for the triple post but new members can only put 1 embedded picture in a post
Hey kristof,
It seems the same issue that is described here:
Can you confirm?
Yes but it’s a bit more. because if the chat window already exists then you open it, you’ll have the same effect. (probably the same)
I’ll merge the topics since you added a bit of info, even if it may be the same issue. 
