We've been conditioned to have that reaction. (That's also why they're red.) Unread-badges are designed to make you open the app, thus increasing the amount of time spent in the app.
Freudian slip: I accidentally wrote "the time spent in the ad" on the first try. :)
yeah but every service you sign up for now has newsletters/mailing lists and constantly sends you semi relevant spam with the occasional gem that you can't instantly consign to the rubbish bin. inbox was so simple for dealing with things like that
You don't really miss anything by throwing every newsletter straight in the spam folder, the worst that will happen is that you hear life-changing news a day late. It will not kill you.
Noooooo, please just unsubscribe. I only sign up for newsletters I actually want to have delivered to my email but every once in a blue moon I notice that a newsletter went to spam instead of my inbox and invariably the reason given is "It is similar to messages that were identified as spam in the past." which to me means that other people marked it as spam instead of properly just unsubscribing.
I understand that it used to be very difficult or impossible to unsubscribe from stuff, but nowaways it's easier than ever as emails are basically required to have a one or two click unsubscribe system.
I get plenty of "newsletters" I never signed up for. Those deserve to be marked as spam. I can't trust that the unsubscribe link isn't used to harvest email addresses that are still in active use, so clicking one of those links is a net negative for me.
Freudian slip: I accidentally wrote "the time spent in the ad" on the first try. :)