diff --git a/ios/CHANGELOG.md b/ios/CHANGELOG.md
index 2c4d1a9..5e4db68 100644
--- a/ios/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/ios/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ The iOS app, `ios/`. Format: [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.
 
 - iPX on the iPhone: the page in an app, playing through the phone's own player, so an episode plays on with the screen locked and the lock screen, Control Center and a car's buttons drive it (#418).
 - Player token (shake, then Player Token): an ipx API token, kept in the keychain, which the player, the badge and CarPlay send to `https://ipxapi.sdf1.net` instead of using the page's sign-in cookie, so playback does not stop when that cookie expires (#419).
-- The icon shows All Subscriptions' unread count, as the page's badge does: set when the app comes forward, after an item is marked read, and by a refresh iOS runs now and then while the app is closed, so it can be hours behind (#421).
+- The icon shows All Subscriptions' unread count, as the page's badge does: set when the app comes forward, after an item is marked read, and by a refresh iOS runs now and then while the app is closed, so it can be hours behind (#421). Reading in the app and new items arriving while it is open set it at once, and while an episode plays it is checked every quarter of an hour.
 - Episodes kept on the phone, with the page's Keep button, play with no connection: the app fetches the file in the background, even with the app closed, and plays it from the phone; where you got to and what you finished offline is sent once the connection is back. Signing out removes them (#425).
 - A sleep timer in the player, kept by the phone, so it pauses on time with the screen locked, fading out over the last ten seconds; and an AirPlay button beside it, for another speaker or a TV (#429).
 - iPX opens with no connection, showing the lists it last had, as it does in a browser: the page's service worker now runs in the app. This is for `ipodderx.sdf1.net` only, and links to other sites open in Safari (#435).
diff --git a/ios/README.md b/ios/README.md
index 22e7cef..5f20539 100644
--- a/ios/README.md
+++ b/ios/README.md
@@ -90,6 +90,7 @@ Page to app, on `webkit.messageHandlers.ipx`:
 | `{t:"keep", url}` `{t:"unkeep", url}` | keep a file on the phone, or let it go: the page's path for it, `/media/42` or `/media/42/deadair` (#425) |
 | `{t:"clearKept"}` | signing out: everything kept goes |
 | `{t:"sleep", secs}` | pause after `secs`, fading out over the last ten; 0 turns the timer off (#429) |
+| `{t:"unread", n}` | All Subscriptions' unread count, whenever the page's list is drawn with a new one: the icon's badge (#421) |
 | `{t:"haptic", kind}` | a press felt: `tap`, `done` (marked read) or `warn` (an error) (#430) |
 | `{t:"route", x, y, w, h}` | open the AirPlay picker, pointing at the page's button, in the web view's points (#429) |
 
diff --git a/ios/Sources/Badge.swift b/ios/Sources/Badge.swift
index 34f1116..d38069f 100644
--- a/ios/Sources/Badge.swift
+++ b/ios/Sources/Badge.swift
@@ -38,6 +38,23 @@ enum Badge {
         UNUserNotificationCenter.current().requestAuthorization(options: [.badge]) { _, _ in }
     }
 
+    /// The page's own count, sent as its list changes (#421).
+    @MainActor static func set(_ n: Int) {
+        lastSet = Date()
+        Task { try? await UNUserNotificationCenter.current().setBadgeCount(max(0, n)) }
+    }
+
+    /// When the icon was last set from a count, by either way.
+    @MainActor private static var lastSet = Date.distantPast
+
+    /// While an episode plays with the screen locked the app is awake, unlike the page: so new
+    /// items reach the icon every quarter of an hour, which background refresh does not promise.
+    @MainActor static func refreshIfStale() {
+        guard Date().timeIntervalSince(lastSet) > 15 * 60 else { return }
+        lastSet = Date()
+        Task { await refresh() }
+    }
+
     /// Asks ipx and sets the icon. Left as it is when ipx cannot be reached or does not answer
     /// with a feed list: an old number is better than a wrong one.
     @discardableResult
@@ -52,7 +69,7 @@ enum Badge {
         guard let (data, resp) = try? await URLSession(configuration: cfg).data(for: req),
               (resp as? HTTPURLResponse)?.statusCode == 200,
               let n = unread(inAll: data) else { return false }
-        try? await UNUserNotificationCenter.current().setBadgeCount(n)
+        await MainActor.run { set(n) }
         return true
     }
 
diff --git a/ios/Sources/Bridge.swift b/ios/Sources/Bridge.swift
index 06b817b..210de61 100644
--- a/ios/Sources/Bridge.swift
+++ b/ios/Sources/Bridge.swift
@@ -94,6 +94,7 @@ final class Bridge: NSObject, WKScriptMessageHandler {
         case "sleep": playback.sleep(after: m["secs"] as? Double ?? 0)
         case "route": showRoutes(m)
         case "haptic": haptic(m["kind"] as? String)
+        case "unread": if let n = m["n"] as? Int { Badge.set(n) }
         default: break
         }
     }
diff --git a/ios/Sources/Playback.swift b/ios/Sources/Playback.swift
index f22c58b..6a7148b 100644
--- a/ios/Sources/Playback.swift
+++ b/ios/Sources/Playback.swift
@@ -227,6 +227,7 @@ final class Playback: NSObject {
         onTime?(secs, duration)
         updateElapsed(secs)
         if abs(secs - lastSaved) > 10 { savePosition() }
+        Badge.refreshIfStale()
         // Heard, not just started: the same 90% the page uses, so an item does not leave Unread
         // the moment it is pressed. The page does the same while it runs; this is for when it
         // does not.
diff --git a/ios/project.yml b/ios/project.yml
index cc54dc5..e6b7407 100644
--- a/ios/project.yml
+++ b/ios/project.yml
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ targets:
       properties:
         CFBundleDisplayName: iPX
         CFBundleShortVersionString: $(MARKETING_VERSION)
-        CFBundleVersion: "9"
+        CFBundleVersion: "10"
         # Playing on with the screen locked. A plist key, not a signed entitlement, so it works on
         # a free personal team; CarPlay's own dashboard app is an entitlement Apple has to grant.
         UIBackgroundModes: [audio, fetch]
diff --git a/tests/native-bridge.ts b/tests/native-bridge.ts
index 387984a..bbdc691 100644
--- a/tests/native-bridge.ts
+++ b/tests/native-bridge.ts
@@ -175,6 +175,11 @@ since();
 vm.runInContext('toast("Unable to play", true)', ctx);
 ok(last('haptic')?.kind === 'warn', 'an error was not felt');
 
+// The icon's count (#421): the page's own, sent when it changes.
+since();
+vm.runInContext('hostBadge(7); hostBadge(7); hostBadge(3)', ctx);
+ok(posted.filter(m => m.t === 'unread').map(m => m.n).join() === '7,3', 'the app was not told the unread count once per change');
+
 if (failed) { console.error(`\n${failed} failed`); process.exit(1); }
 console.log('OK: native-bridge: the host takes playback, keeping, the sleep timer and haptics, and the page follows it');
 process.exit(0);
diff --git a/web/CHANGELOG.md b/web/CHANGELOG.md
index 57873c5..d05ea29 100644
--- a/web/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/web/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ### Added
 
+- In the iOS app, the icon's unread count follows the page's: reading and new items change it at once, not the next time the app is opened (#421).
 - In the iOS app, presses are felt: play, pause, flag, pull to refresh, marking read and errors each give the phone's haptic for it (#430).
 - A sleep timer in the player: 5 minutes to an hour, then playback fades out and pauses. In the iOS app the phone keeps the time, so it works with the screen locked; the app and Safari also get an AirPlay button. On a phone the title has the player's top line to itself, with the controls either side of play below it (#429).
 - In the iOS app, Keep on this device keeps the episode on the phone, where the app's own player plays it with no connection; until now the app had no Keep button (#425).
diff --git a/web/src/feeds.ts b/web/src/feeds.ts
index e10cfda..3f22106 100644
--- a/web/src/feeds.ts
+++ b/web/src/feeds.ts
@@ -108,6 +108,7 @@ function renderFeeds(){
   for(const img of $$<HTMLImageElement>('img',list)){ const k=img.outerHTML; if(!drawn.has(k)) drawn.set(k,[]); drawn.get(k)!.push(img); }
   list.innerHTML='';
   const unreadAll=unreadInAll();
+  hostBadge(unreadAll);
   const places=document.createElement('div');
   places.className='places';
   for(const [id,v] of Object.entries(VIEWS)){
diff --git a/web/src/native.ts b/web/src/native.ts
index b0782e1..f1aad32 100644
--- a/web/src/native.ts
+++ b/web/src/native.ts
@@ -25,6 +25,15 @@ const ipxHost: ((m: any) => void) | null = (() => {
 
 if (ipxHost) installNativePlayback();
 
+/// All Subscriptions' unread count, for the app's icon (#421), each time the list is drawn with a
+/// new one: items read in the page and new ones arriving set it at once, where the app's own fetch
+/// waited for the app to come forward again.
+let badgeSent=-1;
+function hostBadge(n: number){
+  // As haptic: the list can be drawn before this file has declared what it uses.
+  try{ if(n!==badgeSent){ badgeSent=n; ipxHost?.({t:'unread', n}); } }catch{}
+}
+
 /// A press felt as well as seen, in the app (#430): the phone's haptics, which a page cannot reach.
 /// `tap` for play, pause and the like, `done` for something finished (marked read), `warn` for an
 /// error. An app without them ignores the message; a browser has no host to send it to.