[Low priority][Android Remote] Recents reverts to created-age timestamp after reopening

Priority / severity

Low. This does not block task execution and does not appear to cause data loss. It makes Remote recency metadata unreliable and can mislead users navigating several long-running tasks.

Summary

The ChatGPT Android Remote task list often displays a task's age using stale or incorrect metadata. A task actively updated seconds earlier can show 3w.

Pull-to-refresh/manual refresh temporarily corrects the timestamp, but leaving and reopening the Remote page restores the incorrect old value. The refreshed timestamp therefore appears to update only in memory, or stale persisted data overwrites it during rehydration.

Reproduction

1. Connect the ChatGPT Android app to a Windows Codex Desktop host through Remote.
2. Actively exchange messages in an existing task.
3. Return to the Remote task list / Recents page.
4. Observe that the active task may display an old age such as 3w.
5. Manually refresh the list.
6. The timestamp becomes current/correct.
7. Leave the page and open it again.
8. The stale 3w value returns.

This reproduces repeatedly for the same task.

Controlled metadata comparison

For the photographed task, read-only host state reported:

created_at: 2026-08-01 06:03:03 UTC
updated_at: 2026-08-27 01:31:45 UTC
updated_at age at inspection: approximately 0.1 minutes

At the same time, Android displayed:

3w

The displayed value matches the task's creation age, not its current update age.

Additional UI evidence:

• the Windows host showed a green online indicator;
• the task showed a blue unread/activity dot;
• the task was actively receiving messages;
• only the text timestamp remained stale.

Expected behavior

• Recents should display updated_at / effective recency, not created_at, for an actively updated task.
• A successful refresh should persist the corrected metadata.
• Reopening the Remote page should not revert to an older cached value.

Actual behavior

• Initial/page-rehydrated list displays the creation-age-like value.
• Manual refresh displays the correct current recency.
• Reopening the page restores the stale value.

Likely boundary

This looks consistent with an Android Remote cache serialization/rehydration problem, such as refreshed updated_at not being persisted or a missing value falling back to created_at. That is an inference, not a confirmed implementation detail.

This may be loosely related to stale client-side ordering/reconciliation in #36300, but the exact symptom here is different: the row has current unread/activity state while its displayed timestamp reverts after reopening.

Environment

• Remote client: official ChatGPT Android app
• Host: Codex Desktop on Windows 10 x64
• Host package during reproduction: 26.818.8289.0
• Exact Android app version was not rechecked for this capture

Privacy

The screenshot is not attached because it contains a private host name and task title. Task IDs, account identifiers, local paths, host names, and conversation contents are omitted.