Messenger Notification But No Message? Here’s The Fix

messenger app

Have you been notified by Facebook Messenger on your phone about a new message? In that case, there’s no need to get worked up. I’m going to explain what needs to be done. It’s a lot easier than you might think it is.

It’s nice to be able to stay in touch with friends and family using the Facebook Messenger app, but it may be a little frustrating when you can’t recall whether or not you’ve already read a message when you get it again.

Even if you haven’t been sent any new messages, the application will make it appear as though you have, appearing as though Messenger notifications are not working.

The fact that you have just received a new message is shown by a red circle at the top of your screen; however, there is a problem.

The reason Facebook messenger shows you have a notification saying you have messages but you don’t have a message is because you haven’t read all of your messages.

It is completely inactive when you tap on it. Messenger won’t even open, so there’s no way to find out what’s going on or what the message was about.

If you’re experiencing problems opening messages in Facebook Messenger on an iPhone or iPad, I’ll teach you how to fix the problem in this post. I’ll also show you how to remove the notification if there isn’t a message waiting for you.

Facebook Says I Have A Message But I Don’t

If Facebook or messenger says that you have a message when you don’t you’ll have to read through all of your messages because this indicates that you haven’t done that.

When you want to remove the Facebook Messenger notification when you don’t have a message this is what you’ll have to do to clear it.

You may think you have read through everything but you haven’t. Go through your message requesting and also scroll all the way through on messenger. I will be going through this further down in the article.

You may have had messages from years ago that you didn’t even bother opening. If you have had the app for a few years then this can take a while.

Messenger Shows Unread Message

The Facebook Messenger app features a function that displays all of the messages that have been sent to your phone, not just the ones that you have read, therefore it can display unread messages as well.

Even though you have access to all of your messages, there are instances when you may not want to view a particular message.

For example, you may not want to view it if it is from a person you don’t like or if it is about something you don’t want to do. You have the option of disabling the alerts for these chats.

On the other hand, if a significant other sends you a message or if something that might be significant comes up, a notification will appear on your screen so that you don’t miss it and miss out on the information.

If there are several alerts, and they keep flashing up on your screen, you can try turning off announcements on the settings page to stop them from appearing.

It will prevent them from appearing on your screen, but the messages will still be saved in the messenger app, allowing you to go back and look at them later if there is an essential one.

Check Message Requests

You may not have known that Facebook allows you to check your message requests and messages from people you have not added as friends.

messenger settings

The former is an excellent means of preventing someone tried contacting you without being your friend; the latter is a perfect way to get updates and messages from friends who aren’t on Facebook as much as you are.

If you go to your Facebook messages, you’ll see a list of all the messages pending on your account. It’ll appear here if someone sent you a message or request and didn’t accept it.

You can also go to the top right corner of your Facebook page, click Account Settings, click the Security tab, then click “View Your Requests.” It will show you all pending friend requests and messages from non-friends.

You can also click Message Requests on this page to see all pending requests. You can do this by :

  • On your Facebook profile page, click Edit Profile.
  • Then click Change More Settings in the left sidebar.
  • Click on the Show Message Request Settings option towards the bottom. It will bring up a box where you can check “Who can send me friend requests.”

Facebook Message Notifications Won’t Go Away.

One of the most annoying problems with a smartphone is the Facebook message notification that won’t go away even after reading the message.

It’s a problem that has plagued Facebook users for years. Still, because we’re all so fixated on the wonder of what’s happening in our social circle, we’ve become desensitized to the discomfort of having a broken tool.

I sympathize if you’ve noticed that constant notifications about Facebook messages keep popping up on your screen even though you have the chat window open. It’s incredibly annoying, and it’s been driving me crazy since 2012.

The problem is that Facebook will send you a never-ending stream of notifications if you have more than one discussion with the same person open at the same time (or maybe if they’re using more than one device).

The alerts will continue to appear until you open the app and select the “not now” option from the menu. After that, they will leave for a little while.

However, if those persons open another chat with you at a later time, the notifications will begin once more as soon as they appear. So, how do you fix it?

The first step is to make sure there aren’t any other chat windows open for that person. If there are, close them all. Then go into the Settings app > Facebook > Notifications > Messenger. In this menu, press Edit, then change “Show in Notification Center” from “Always to never.

Facebook Says I Have A Message, But I Don’t

If you’re like me, you’ve experienced the phenomenon of Facebook saying you have a new message, but you have no clue what that message is because it’s not showing up in your inbox.

I once had a Facebook message just sitting there for days before realizing it was an invitation to join a group sent to me at least a week earlier.

It’s incredibly frustrating when it happens to you, but as someone who works on the product, I can tell you why it happens and how to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

What happens when Facebook says you have a message, but you don’t? When someone sends you an actual Facebook message, it will pop up in the top-right corner of your screen with a notification saying how many messages you have in total. If none of those notifications appear, this could mean that either

  • no messages are waiting for you
  • Facebook has falsely told people they have messages when they don’t.

Suppose the number of notifications isn’t increasing and you aren’t receiving any messages. In that case, one possible reason is that there’s a bug in your Facebook app that prevents new messages from popping up on your screen.

The other possibility is that Facebook has lied to all its users about having unread messages.

The problem is that sometimes messages get stuck in the other people’s outbox or sent box. When this happens, Facebook will show a “1” next to the “Message” button on their profile, but the message won’t show up in the Messages inbox until they mark it as sent or read.

What are they supposed to do? There are two obvious solutions: either Facebook should show a “1” next to their name until they read the message, or show an “X” next to their name if they can’t see what’s inside the message.

Force Close The App

If you still aren’t able to get rid of messages on messenger the immediate thing that comes to thought is to close the app which is what a force start is.

Force starting Messenger will get rid of any temporary software glitches I was talking about. This goes the same with malfunctions.

To force close the messenger app on your iPhone you should double-tap your home button until you see apps pop up. Now swipe up on Facebook messenger.

If you don’t have a home button on your iPhone then swipe up from the bottom and follow the steps above.

If you’re on an Android phone like a Samsung then just go into settings and look for App, find the messenger app then hit force close.

Once you are done go back to the app and start using it properly again and see if you start to get matches. If not then go on to the next solution.

Messenger Number Won’t Go Away.

Why won’t Facebook Messenger’s number go away? It’s been there for a while, and some users might have given it a chance.

But now it’s become like that friend who still hasn’t gotten the hint that you don’t want to hang out with them anymore—they still keep texting you and popping up on your screen when you’re busy.

You can also switch off your active now status to appear to friends as if you’re inactive.

If you’ve been struggling with how to get rid of the number notification on the app which is the red dot feature, here are some tips that should help you out:

Remove the app from your phone.

The first step to getting rid of Messenger is the most obvious one: remove it from your phone. If you already haven’t deleted the app, use this handy tutorial on deleting apps on your iPhone or Android device.

It will ensure that Messenger isn’t lurking in the background and eating up storage space every time you open Facebook.

Block all of Messenger’s notifications

Once you’ve gotten rid of the app itself, you can follow these steps to block all of Messenger’s notifications from popping up on your screen. On an iPhone: go into Settings > Notifications > Messenger and select “Hide Alerts”. Go into Settings > Apps > Messenger on an Android and select “Block All Notifications.”

Messenger Red Dot Won’t Go Away.

When you do not want to be disturbed, you want to mark yourself as unavailable. There is a message option: tap the red dot on the top right corner of your chat window. The red dot will disappear, signaling that you’re not available to chat.

Later on, when a Messenger conversation has been going on for a while, the little red dot in the corner gets annoying when it pops up every few minutes.

It’s easy to dismiss, but it doesn’t go away. There are two ways to get rid of it. The first is by opening the conversation and tapping the blue arrow in the top-right corner, which will bring up the entire conversation thread.

The second is by going into your settings and turning off notifications from that conversation altogether.

How To Clear Messenger Notification

The Facebook Messenger app has a handy feature that allows users to clear the notification from within the Messenger. However, there is no way to remove it from the app itself.

To do that, follow these steps:

Step 1: Open your Facebook messenger app and go to the recent chats list.

Step 2: Tap on the chat you want to clear the notification.

Step 3: Now, swipe right on the chat screen and click “Clear All Notifications.”

Mark Everything As Read

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been patiently waiting for the day when Facebook’s “Mark all as read” option will become a reality.

Indeed, this feature has been one of the most requested ones—I mean, it would save us a lot of time in not having to click on every single story that comes up in our newsfeed.

But, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that there is a way to mark everything as read. The bad news is that it’s not exactly what we want it to be.

Step 1: Go to your profile and click the “Activity Log” link on your left-side menu.

Step 2: Below the “Most Recent Stories,” you’ll see a “Most Recent Activity setting.” Click on it to open up a dropdown menu and select “View All” from that list to bring up your activity stories.

Step 3: Scroll down until you see an option entitled “Mark All As Read” near the bottom of the page.

Step 4: Once you’ve found it, click on it, and voila! You’re done! You can now go straight to the activity log whenever you feel like checking out what’s new.

Scroll Through And Check You Haven’t Missed Any Messages

Are you a Facebook user? Do you get notifications on your phone? Many people have been victims of the “missed message” phenomenon.

They would be scrolling through their news feed and see a notification about a post by one of their friends, but when they tap on that post, they realize that they didn’t miss out on anything.

In reality, there was never a post, to begin with. The notification was merely an illusion. So if you’re someone who gets a lot of messages from Facebook, it’s best to scroll through them again before checking them out.

You never know what might have been lurking in the background. It’s always a good idea to check for new messages on Facebook, especially if you’re a frequent user.

messenger unread messages

But with so many messages coming in and going out all the time, it can be easy to miss a few. To help you stay on top of your incoming messages, Facebook lets you scroll through your inbox without having to click on each message.

Re-install Messenger

Messenger can be a faulty app from time to time. When there are software glitches this may indicate that there is a problem with the caching on the app.

The best way to solve this problem is to delete the app and install it again. This will clear the cache and baby software problems you may be experiencing.

To delete an app on iPhone you can just press down on it until all the apps start shaking. Once they start shaking press the “x” on the app and click on delete to confirm.

If you’re on an Android device then you can just go into the settings and go into the application settings, find Messenger and delete it.

Once you have done this you can go back to the App or Play Store and type in the word “Messenger” and click on install. Wait for a few seconds and it should be installed. Now all you have to do is log in.

Report issue to Facebook

You should have gotten rid of the problem now and you should be seeing a notification on the app saying you have an unread message

In rare instances where you still are not able to get rid of the messenger notification then as a final resort, I would report these issues to Facebook.

Here you can explain to them what the problem is and hopefully, they will be able to resolve it. This can be done by going to the link above and clicking on the down arrow. Now click on Help & Support

Take a screenshot of the unread notification on messenger so that the technicians have a better idea of what you’re talking about.

Facebook may take a bit of time to respond, in some cases, this may be a week so it is up to you whether or not you want to go through this route.

This is because they go through so many reports a day so they will need to filter through all of them before they get to yours.

I would suggest getting straight to the point in your report to help speed up the process. This isn’t necessary but just as a last precaution since it may be quite clear that there is something wrong with your account.

Conclusion

Facebook Messenger isn’t for everyone, that’s for sure. Some people are confused by this feature. It facilitates communication with a distant party.

You will receive a notification every time a new message is received, which is a really helpful feature. If something goes wrong, you can count on us to be here.

If it occurs again, you will know what steps to take. Is the red dot no longer available on Facebook Messenger?

Message number? If you follow our methods, you will be able to comprehend and resolve the issue.

Dozie Ejizu
Dozie is the founder of Vergizmo.com, with 10+ years of experience in Social Media and consumer tech devices. Dozie has written hundreds of articles with tried and tested methods to provide you with up-to-date information.