I believe on my laptop the notifications will auto update without reloading the page. On the android app it does not auto update. I have to reload the page.

You are correct, in the mobile app notification in bottom bar are updated with the page only, we'll make it work dynamically in the future - https://github.com/unaio/una-mobile-app/issues/36

Notifications (red numbered) that should be shown on the bell are shown where the member menu link is instead.

I think you need to update mobile app to the 1.5 version as well.