Why do I have a red exclamation mark on my Apple message icon?

[anon(10326557)]

I have Apple Air 2 Ipad. A red exclamation mark showed up on my green Messsage icon, on my Home page. I never used this icon, so don't know why it is there. ( I read where it said it was caused by a message that didn't get sent? I never sent any messages, as I don't use this app.)

Is this some kind of hack? Would it be a message from Apple? How do I get rid of it? Or can I remove the icon without hurting anything?

 

[Sherry_B]

Typically that's from a message didn't get sent. Try disabling iMessage.

 

[Imogenlawrence]

This is normally a message that didn't get sent, maybe it just wants you to log in (if you haven't already)