Unifying Playback State Across Surfaces
Playback state was realigned to a single source of truth across the lock screen, mini player, and reels.
The lock screen remote control, mini player, and reels video transitions were each reflecting slightly different playback states. This kind of inconsistency does not surface in a feature checklist, but it directly undermines the reliability of the playback experience — users are forced to repeatedly re-verify what is currently playing.
The core of the fix was restructuring playback flow so that all UI surfaces derive state from a single owner. Track loading order, audio session acquisition timing, effect and reverb application points, and reels transition boundaries were all moved to pull from the same source rather than making independent determinations per surface.
The mini player, lock screen, and reels now display consistent playback state. While this appears to be a UI alignment change, the substantive improvement is in ownership and source-of-truth clarity for playback state.