diff --git a/.changeset/hot-news-bake.md b/.changeset/hot-news-bake.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..ab6178a23a68
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/hot-news-bake.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'@sveltejs/kit': patch
+---
+
+reload dev page on change of app.html
diff --git a/packages/kit/src/exports/vite/dev/index.js b/packages/kit/src/exports/vite/dev/index.js
index 778b369de67a..02056f176d0c 100644
--- a/packages/kit/src/exports/vite/dev/index.js
+++ b/packages/kit/src/exports/vite/dev/index.js
@@ -235,6 +235,18 @@ export async function dev(vite, vite_config, svelte_config) {
 		sync.update(svelte_config, manifest_data, file);
 	});
 
+	const { appTemplate } = svelte_config.kit.files;
+	// vite client only executes a full reload if the triggering html file path is index.html
+	// kit defaults to src/app.html, so unless user changed that to index.html
+	// send the vite client a full-reload event without path being set
+	if (appTemplate !== 'index.html') {
+		vite.watcher.on('change', (file) => {
+			if (file === appTemplate) {
+				vite.ws.send({ type: 'full-reload' });
+			}
+		});
+	}
+
 	const assets = svelte_config.kit.paths.assets ? SVELTE_KIT_ASSETS : svelte_config.kit.paths.base;
 	const asset_server = sirv(svelte_config.kit.files.assets, {
 		dev: true,