Use hideLabel to shrink the badge to just its dot. The badge's own surface is the dot, so intent and emphasis set its look, size sets its size, and indicatorPulse pulses it. The label stays in the DOM, visually hidden, so screen readers still announce it. Position the dot from its container; the badge has no placement prop.
Use hideLabel only where space is tight and the surrounding context explains the dot, like the corner of a collapsed nav tile. The hidden label is what a screen reader hears, so it must still describe the state, such as "3 unread", not "3".
API reference
Badge
indicatorboolean
Show a dot indicator before the text
indicatorPulseboolean
Animate the indicator with a slow pulse
hideLabelboolean
Show only a dot; the label stays announced, so it must describe the state.