diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 7f05c16..1bf7c9d 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -5,10 +5,10 @@ All notable changes to PeerSpeak are documented here.
 ## [Unreleased]
 
 ### Fixed
-- **Friends list now reflects status changes without a restart.** A presence probe that fails now actively marks the friend **offline**, so a friend who goes offline, leaves a room, or turns invisible no longer lingers showing a stale "online" / "in a room" status until PeerSpeak is relaunched. Previously only successful probes updated the list, so it could ratchet a friend's status up but never down. The list continues to auto-refresh every 60 seconds.
+- **Friends list now reflects status changes without a restart.** A presence probe that fails now actively marks the friend **offline**, so a friend who goes offline, leaves a room, or turns invisible no longer lingers showing a stale "online" / "in a room" status until PeerSpeak is relaunched. Previously only successful probes updated the list, so it could ratchet a friend's status up but never down. The auto-refresh interval was also shortened from 60s to **15s** so the list tracks changes more closely.
 
 ### Added
-- **Manual "⟳ Rescan" button** on the Friends panel that refreshes everyone's presence immediately, instead of waiting for the next 60-second auto-refresh.
+- **Manual "⟳ Rescan" button** on the Friends panel that refreshes everyone's presence immediately, instead of waiting for the next auto-refresh.
 
 ### Licensing
 - **PeerSpeak is now released under the MIT License** (previously an unlicensed private build). Added a `LICENSE` file and a `THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES` file enumerating the full dependency manifest plus the canonical text of every referenced license, with notices for the statically bundled Opus codec and the embedded fonts (Iced-Icons, Cantarell/OFL-1.1). Both files ship in the Arch and Debian packages.
diff --git a/src/core/mod.rs b/src/core/mod.rs
index b5fe8e4..a225d48 100644
--- a/src/core/mod.rs
+++ b/src/core/mod.rs
@@ -966,10 +966,12 @@ async fn persist_and_emit_friends(
         .await;
 }
 
-/// How often the outbound presence scheduler refreshes friends' status. Slow on
-/// purpose — presence is best-effort, not real-time, and each pass opens a short
-/// connection per friend.
-const PING_INTERVAL: Duration = Duration::from_secs(60);
+/// How often the outbound presence scheduler refreshes friends' status. Each pass
+/// opens one short connection per friend with a saved address, so the cost scales
+/// with friend-count, not a fixed per-tick cost. 15s keeps the list feeling live
+/// without aggressively probing peers for a best-effort signal; the manual Rescan
+/// button covers the "update now" case below this interval.
+const PING_INTERVAL: Duration = Duration::from_secs(15);
 /// Delay before the FIRST presence pass, so the endpoint's background `online()`
 /// has a moment to finish (otherwise the first probes fail and friends flash offline).
 const PING_STARTUP_DELAY: Duration = Duration::from_secs(3);