Unread badges are per person, unless your clinic has asked us to turn on shared read state.
How it works by default
The unread badge on a conversation counts patient messages you have not opened yet.
When you open the conversation, the messages are marked read for you. A teammate who has not opened it still sees the badge on their screen.
Sending a reply marks the conversation read for you, the sender.
Badges refresh automatically about every 30 seconds. No page refresh needed.
Shared read state, a clinic-level setting
Clinics that run a shared team inbox can ask us to turn on shared read state. With it on, the badge counts patient messages that no one on the care team has read yet. When any team member opens the conversation, or replies to it, it is marked read for everyone. A teammate's read can take up to half a minute to show on your screen. Message us through the in-app chat if you want this for your clinic.
What "still unread" means
If a badge stays lit, a patient message has not been opened yet: by you, or, with shared read state on, by anyone on the team. That's the indicator doing its job.
Seeing counts that look wrong?
If you see a count that stays wrong for more than a minute, hard-refresh the page (Ctrl+Shift+R on Windows, Cmd+Shift+R on Mac). If the discrepancy persists after that, send support a screenshot with the approximate time. We can trace exactly what happened.