Xbox app spams users with notifications, with gamers blaming Microsoft's reliance on AI

Reddit is full of reports of the Xbox mobile app bombarding gamers with push notifications. Some users received the same message 30+ times consecutively, monopolizing smartphones. Microsoft has been under scrutiny after appointing a new CEO with AI expertise to head its gaming division. However, in this instance, the explanation for the spam may be less controversial.

Every message sent by the app is exactly the same:

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.

Gamers may also see an icon for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora next to the text. The reason for the non-stop communication is unclear, but the problem appears to originate from the Braze platform.

Braze is a service relied on to maintain customer loyalty. One way it keeps users engaged is with automated alerts in mobile apps. Meanwhile, BrazeAI employs AI tools to personalize these notifications based on a customer’s behavior. The company had some prior connections to Microsoft, including with its Azure cloud hosting platform.

Given Microsoft’s investment in Co-Pilot, which now appears in Xbox apps, it’s easy to blame the technology for every snafu. Still, simple human error may be the cause of the recent spam. A few posters speculate that developers accidentally sent the dummy message while testing a new automation.

Will AI run Xbox in the future?

Regardless of what led to the incident, many fans worry that AI will eventually dominate Xbox games, apps, and hardware. Those fears have been amplified with Asha Sharma taking over as Microsoft Gaming CEO. With no prior experience in the gaming industry, she previously led the company’s CoreAI product division.

Sharma insists that she will strive to prevent AI slop from replacing human artists. Even so, that may not apply to more mundane tasks like sending out notifications.

Microsoft has now acknowledged the spam issue on social media, explaining that engineers are investigating. If changing settings in the Xbox app doesn’t work, other gamers have taken the drastic measure of uninstalling the software.