Yes, "GPT-5 with thinking" is great at search, but it's horrible that it shows "Network connection lost. Attempting to reconnect..." after you switch away from the app for even just a few seconds before coming back.

It's going to take a minute, so why do I need to keep looking at it and can't go read some more Wikipedia in the mean time?

This is insanely user hostile. Is it just me who encounters this? I'm on Plus plan on Android. Maybe you don't get this with Pro?

Here's a screenshot of what I mean: https://imgur.com/a/9LZ1jTI

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simonw 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

Weird. That doesn't happen to me on iOS - I can post the question, wait just long enough for it to display "Thinking...." and then go and do something else.

It even shows me a push notification at the top of my screen when the search task has finished.

	▲	IanCal 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		As a counter I've found that the iOS app is insanely unreliable. I've lost chats, it messes up and says there has been no response, connection lost and more. It's been really bad. Often when it's reported no result and failed, I go to the site and everything is fine. If things fail I no longer retry as that's how I've permanently lost history before (which is insane, don't lose my shit), and go and check the website. Insane ratio of "app quality" to "magic technology". The models are wild (as someone in the AI mix for the last 20 years or so) and the mobile app and codex integrations are hot garbage.

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tasercake 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I’ve had this happen on iOS too, usually when I switch away from the thread or the app before it progresses past the initial “Thinking…”.

But I’ve found that no matter the error - even if I disconnect from the internet entirely - I eventually get a push notification and opening up the thread a while later shows me the full response. (disclaimer: N=1)

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wolttam 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yeah it should be able to perform these entirely as a process on their end and the app should just check in on progress.

One of the complications of your average query taking at least some number of seconds to complete - that is, long enough for the user to do something else while waiting.

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timpera 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'm also on Android with the Plus subscription and I also get this. It usually reconnects by itself a few seconds later, but if it doesn't, I've found that you can get to the answer by closing the app and reopening it.

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Tenemo 4 days ago | parent [-]

I had the same problem and I figured out how to fix it! For Samsungs, Apps ‐> ChatGPT -> Battery -> Unrestricted completely fixed the issue for me, it continues thinking/outputting in the background now. Should be a similiar setting for other Android distributions. Basically, it wasn't the app's fault, the OS is just halting it in the background to save battery.

	▲	croemer 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		Thank you! That fixed it for me on Pixel 8 as well. Would be great if the app suggested this as a fix.

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astrange 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is fine because it does reconnect, but some actions cause it to just stop thinking and not write a response, and I can't tell what they are. Wastes a few minutes because you have to re-run it.

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cm2012 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Ive always had this happen too, super annoying. Android.