Aviate Launcher... Icons now have grey "badges or dots" in upper left. Why?

[AL in SF]

Upgraded from S6 to S7 Edge. Using Yahoo Aviate as launcher.
Home icons on S7 have gray circles on upper left. Anyone know what those are and how to get rid of them?
These don't seem to be normal badges as badge counts show up on upper right in red. These are not part of the icons themselves as detailed screens behind the home do not have the circles for the same app.
I've turned off via "Force Stop" the Android System "BadgeProvider" and it has no impact.
Turning on/off the Aviate "Enable Badge" in Settings has no impact.

Just want the icons to look like they did on the S6 with normal badges and get rid of these grey bubbles on the upper left.

Thanks for any insights and help.

 

[bIOforger]

Try changing the icon pack to another, does it repeat the issue?

 

[AL in SF]

Thanks for the suggestion. I did replace the icons using the Belle UI icon pack and the dots are still there. It was a good suggestion and I appreciate it. I did notice the dots only show on the "home" screen. Aviate will have the same apps and icons organized in other locations aside from the home screen and these other identical icons do not have the gray dots. That's why I think it's some kind of notification or badge that is overlaid on top of the icon. The attached picture shows how normal badge numbers appear on the icon in upper right in red. Even with an updated legitimate badge, the odd gray ones are still there, but with no number or other identifying mark to help me figure out what it could be.

 

[AL in SF]

I think I figured it out. The gray dot indicates extra menus are available by press-holding the icon. The phone brings us recent calls and voicemail. Chrome brings up "new tab" and "search" options. Google Maps pulls up "directions home" "directions work" and "share location". The icons which don't have the dots do not give submenus and press-holding them just allows you to move them or delete them.

 

[wreed]

If you go into Aviate Labs in the Aviate Settings you can disable it under Quick Actions.

 

[mikedt]

Could be an incompatibility with S7 and Samsung's version of Marshmallow. Is Yahoo actually still maintaining, updating and supporting Aviate?

I tried Aviate last year on an Oppo R7 Plus with Lollipop 5.1.1, and it didn't want to know, so didn't bother going any further.