My Gmail tab continues blinking after I've read the Google chat message

August 29, 2013 7:20 AM

Why does my Gmail tab continue blinking indicating I have an unread Google Talk window when I've already viewed it? It's been getting progressively worse for months, and I have several friends who have this same issue. The only way to get the tab to stop blinking is to open an email or something similar, which then "clears" the blinking name ("Steve says...") out of the tab.

I have this issue using Chrome on both a Mac and a PC (Win 7).

posted by rbf1138 to Technology (13 answers total)

I believe clicking in the chat window itself, as if you were going to type a reply, will squelch this.
posted by blue t-shirt at 7:21 AM on August 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

I've noticed this in firefox recently, for what it's worth. Even after typing a reply and having my message be the last, the box will still blink.
posted by Think_Long at 7:23 AM on August 29, 2013

Same problem here.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:32 AM on August 29, 2013

Response by poster: blue t-shirt, that's exactly the issue. Doing that does not stop the blinking the way it should (and used to do 100% of the time in the past).
posted by rbf1138 at 7:34 AM on August 29, 2013

Is it possible you have a session open in a different location? Most google talk weirdness I've experienced can be attributed to the fact that I've left myself signed in on my tablet or something silly.
posted by blue t-shirt at 7:37 AM on August 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Nope, not that either. And like I said, this seems to be affecting several of my friends who also use gchat. And who knows how many more are suffering in silence? Speak up!
posted by rbf1138 at 7:39 AM on August 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

I usually just click "important" on the left and then back to "inbox" so that it refreshes its damn mind and get's over whatever little hiccup it is having.
posted by skrozidile at 7:50 AM on August 29, 2013

I get this every once in a while and refreshing the page (F5) seems to clear it up every time.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:03 AM on August 29, 2013

Happening routinely for me in both Chrome and Firefox, only as of recently (past month or so).
posted by deludingmyself at 8:05 AM on August 29, 2013

Response by poster: I don't want to have to refresh or click another area of gmail to clear the blinking tab out. I want it to not happen at all.
posted by rbf1138 at 8:05 AM on August 29, 2013

This used to happen to me a lot (on a different machine) and the only workaround I know is to click somewhere else (fastest is to just click on whatever space you're in, e.g. if you're in your inbox just click Inbox to reload it).
posted by andrewesque at 2:28 PM on August 29, 2013

The only thing that works is refreshing the page, like other have said... or, if you get another message that causes an alert to begin again, it usually doesn't happen twice in a row for me.

Actually, I have experienced two problems: The one you've described, in which the tab continues to blink after I've clicked on the chat window... but more often, the tab will just freeze to "Milhouse says..." (and stops blinking) until I reload the page or receive another chat. Not sure if that also happens to you, but these glitches seem related.

I have experienced the second (freezing) problem for years. The problem you're describing seems newer. I'm also using Chrome/Windows 7.

Just to clarify, this is only happening in your browser tab, correct? As in, the chat window inside the page itself returns to its regular color once you've acknowledged the message, but the browser tab at the top continues to blink.
posted by perryfugue at 3:58 PM on August 29, 2013

Best answer: I talked to a friend of mine at Google and she promised she'd log a ticket internally about the issue. However, she and I both figure they're aware of it already.
posted by rbf1138 at 10:55 AM on August 30, 2013