Android Remote reasoning-effort mismatch: mobile Max/Ultra appears as Medium on Windows Desktop

Summary

There appears to be a reasoning-effort synchronization or representation mismatch between ChatGPT Android Remote and Codex Desktop on Windows when using GPT-5.6 Sol.

On Android Remote, I can select the highest mobile reasoning mode shown by the client (for example Max / Ultra, depending on the UI wording). After the task is handed to the Windows Codex host, the corresponding Desktop session can show the reasoning level as Medium.

The problem is that the product does not expose the effective reasoning effort actually used for the turn, so from the UI alone I cannot determine which of these is happening:

1. Android really sends the higher reasoning effort, but Windows Desktop cannot represent that value and displays Medium incorrectly.
2. The unsupported or differently named mobile value is actually downgraded to Medium somewhere in the Remote/app-server path.
3. Android and Desktop are mapping the same effective reasoning state to different UI labels.

This matters because the user may believe a task is running at the highest reasoning effort while the Desktop appears to indicate Medium, with no authoritative per-turn value available to verify which is correct.

Environment

• Remote controller: ChatGPT for Android 1.2026.237
• Android: 16
• Host: Windows Codex / ChatGPT Desktop
• Model: GPT-5.6 Sol
• Exact current Windows Desktop build was not captured for this report and can be added if required.

Reproduction

1. Connect ChatGPT Android to a Windows Codex host through Remote Control.
2. Start or continue a Codex task using GPT-5.6 Sol.
3. On Android, explicitly select the highest available reasoning mode (Max / Ultra, depending on the mobile UI wording).
4. Submit the task to the Windows host.
5. Open/inspect the same task on Windows Desktop.
6. Observe that the Desktop can show the reasoning effort as Medium rather than the higher setting selected on Android.

Control observation

Using Very High / Extra High (xhigh) appears to be safer because both mobile and Desktop recognize that level consistently. The ambiguity is specifically with the higher mobile mode / label and its mapping across Remote.

Expected behavior

Remote should preserve the selected reasoning effort end-to-end, and both clients should expose the same effective value.

Ideally, the product should expose the effective per-turn reasoning effort returned/accepted by the host or model runtime, rather than only the local selector state. For example, a turn/session diagnostic could distinguish:

• requested reasoning effort;
• normalized/mapped effort;
• effective effort actually used for the turn.

If a mobile-only value is unsupported by the Windows host/app-server, the client should show an explicit downgrade or incompatibility message rather than silently displaying or executing Medium.

Why this is distinct / related

This looks related to existing reasoning-effort propagation bugs, especially:

• #25583 — iOS Remote task on Windows selected xhigh but the Windows session started as medium.
• #26930 — reasoning effort can reset unexpectedly inside Codex Desktop.

The current report is specifically about Android Remote + GPT-5.6 Sol + highest mobile reasoning mode, and asks whether the observed Medium on Desktop is only a UI representation mismatch or an actual reasoning-effort downgrade.

No task IDs, account identifiers, host identifiers, local paths, or private conversation content are included.

Start by tracing the reasoning-effort value from the Android Remote selection through the Windows host and Desktop session, comparing the requested, normalized, displayed, and effective values. Reproduce the GPT-5.6 Sol case and use the xhigh control observation; the issue is done when the mismatch is identified and unsupported or downgraded values are exposed consistently.