Xbox one messaging problems

Did you try restarting your xbox?

The problem turned out to be an unread message that had been squirreled away in the Xbox 360 SmartGlass app that I had uninstalled from my iPad several months ago. I re-installed the Xbox 360 SmartGlass app, deleted the offending message, and the message
icon in both the Xbox One Dashboard and the Windows 10 Xbox app returned to normal. I don't know why the message only showed up in SmartGlass, but I'm just glad the *** thing is gone.

Order has been restored to the universe.

Special thanks to Nicole from Xbox Tech Support for all of her help!

Could you open up individual message threads and see if that triggers the 1 to reduce to a zero? Somehow, there could be an older unread message within a thread. The culprit is often a message from "Xbox Live" so if you have a current thread with that 'user',
I would try that first.

Also, start up a backwards compatible and open the Xbox 360 Guide by pressing the Menu+View buttons (the two buttons either side of the central Xbox/Home button) and see if there are any 'unread' friend requests or voice messages.

Let us know how you get on.

I just spent a few minutes with Nicole at Xbox Tech Support and we figured it out. I had an unread message in the Xbox 360 SmartGlass app that I had uninstalled from my iPad a looooong time ago and that was triggering the "message waiting" icon. I re-installed
SmartGlass on my iPad, deleted the offending message, and the icon returned to normal on both my Xbox One dashboard AND the Windows 10 Xbox app.

Order in the universe has been restored.

Thanks for your help, maxen!

There are many factors that go into who is chosen to be in the program, and most of them are kept secret. Getting invited doesn't guarantee acceptance, but I read that it is taking longer than normal right now because so many people wanted in after E3. Unfortunately,
all you can do is wait, and keep checking your messages on your console.