Techniques for providing dynamic and secure real-time notifications in messages are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, a method comprises: storing a count of notifications associated with a user; transmitting a message to a messaging client of a device of the user, the message being configured to trigger the messaging client to transmit a request in response to the message being opened; updating the count of notifications after the transmission of the message; receiving the request from the messaging client based on the message having been opened; in response to receiving the request, determining the changed count of notifications; retrieving an image from a database of images based on the changed count of notifications, the image indicating the changed count of notifications; and transmitting the image to the messaging client for display in the opened message.