Instagram keeps showing me that I have unread notifications from Threads (the Twitter-like social media related to Instagram) even though I don't even use Threads. I follow nobody on Threads. Although I do tell Instagram to share my Instagram posts to Threads, I don't actually get any likes or comments on them.
Sometimes it says I have several notifications, like 9 or 7, even though nobody interacted with my posts on Threads, nobody sent me direct messages, nobody followed me, nobody did anything.
If I do click the link to go to Threads, I'll see a notification dot next to a heart icon on Threads' sidebar, which would lead me to think that I actually got some likes on the platform.
But this just shows a list of random posts for some reason. I assume this is supposed to be trending posts or some sort of "for you" algorithm? In any case, this is clearly the wrong way to use a notification indicator! It's annoying and unnecessary.