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If your phone suddenly lit up with Xbox app spam notifications today, you were not hacked, singled out, or losing your mind. On February 25, thousands of Xbox app users were hit with multiple “Mobile Test Message” alerts referencing something called Braze, and the flood was very real.

The notifications read: “This is a dummy message sent via Braze, please capture a screenshot once you receive it. This should take you to the recently added gallery.” Not exactly something you expect to see from a polished, public-facing app.

Here is what happened, what Xbox has said, and why the timing raised a few eyebrows.

What The Xbox App Spam Message Said

Around 12:30 PM Eastern time, users began reporting a wave of identical test notifications from the Xbox mobile app. According to reporting from Kotaku, some people received as many as eight messages in quick succession, while others shared screenshots online showing even more.

Interestingly, Kotaku’s Zack Zwiezen noted that all of his notifications displayed the icon for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, adding another layer of confusion. The message itself clearly looked like internal test copy, referencing a dummy message and instructing the recipient to capture a screenshot.

One user speculated that someone had accidentally pushed a test build live, writing that “Someone pushed Test to Prod,” suggesting a development environment mistake.

The common thread across reports was simple: this was not targeted, and it was not malicious.

What Is Braze And Why Was It Mentioned?

The test message referenced Braze directly, which led many users to Google the name. Braze is a customer engagement and messaging platform used by large companies to manage cross-platform notifications, campaigns, and in-app messaging.

It appears the Xbox app either uses Braze or is integrating it more deeply into its notification system. The wording strongly suggests that an internal test notification was accidentally sent to the live user base instead of staying within a development or QA environment.

Reddit users familiar with backend systems quickly pointed out that this kind of issue usually means a configuration or deployment error, not a security breach.

Xbox Confirms The Error And Resolves It

Xbox Support acknowledged the issue, referring to the flood of alerts as “errant messaging” and confirming that engineering teams were investigating the underlying cause.

Later in the day, the official Xbox account posted on X, stating: “The Xbox App got a little too enthusiastic with test notifications today. That’s on us, but it’s resolved now. Thanks for understanding, and we apologize for flooding your notifications.”

No detailed technical explanation was provided, but Xbox made it clear that the spam notifications were a mistake and not a hack.

Why The Timing Felt Awkward For Xbox

The Xbox app spam glitch landed during a particularly turbulent week for the brand. Recently, longtime Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer stepped down from his role. Asha Sharma, who comes from an AI background, has taken over leadership duties, while Sarah Bond exited her position as Xbox president. Matt Booty was promoted to chief content officer.

That context made even a relatively minor technical slip feel bigger than it otherwise might have been.

Still, despite the jokes and frustration, this appears to have been nothing more than an accidental deployment of internal test notifications.

Should You Be Worried About Your Account?

Short answer, no.

There are no signs of a breach, compromise, or targeted attack. The messages were uniform, widely distributed, and clearly labelled as dummy test content. There is no indication that user data was exposed or that accounts were accessed.

If you received the Xbox app spam notifications, you can safely ignore them. As confirmed by Xbox, the issue has already been resolved.

For now, it looks like the only real damage was a temporarily very noisy lock screen.

With Xbox navigating a major leadership transition and ongoing conversations about AI’s role in the company’s future, even small technical hiccups are going to attract outsized attention. If anything, this episode shows that while the messaging system might have glitched, the platform itself is very much still operational.

And hopefully, a little less enthusiastic with its test messages next time.