Sync playback progress locally between Apple Watch and phone on pause

[dericleeyy]

Fixes PCIOS-196

Playback progress made on the Apple Watch (Watch play source) didn't appear on the iPhone — and changes on the phone didn't appear on the watch — without manually tapping "Refresh now" on both devices, because the two apps only reconciled through a server sync/refresh.

Currently the Watch source only syncs to the cloud server, with a 2 minute throttle limit update. When the phone receives the update, it does not reflect it immediately and require an app restart. The idea now is for the watch to also send the update to the phone locally, without depending on cloud. The cloud sync is untouched.

On pause, each device now pushes its playback position directly to the other over WatchConnectivity and applies it to the local player/DB, so Now Playing and episode progress update without a manual refresh. Conflicts use last-write-wins on playedUpToModified, the actively-playing device is never overridden, and the existing server sync still propagates to other devices (web, iPad). Gated behind a new watchPlaybackProgressLocalSync feature flag (default on).

Changes

• Add watchPlaybackProgressLocalSync feature flag (FeatureFlag.swift).
• Add a PlaybackProgressUpdate WatchConnectivity message and a nowPlayingPlayedUpToModified now-playing key (WatchConstants.swift).
• Watch → phone: on pause the watch sends its position (WatchSyncManager.playbackPaused → SessionManager.sendPlaybackProgress); the phone applies it and moves the live mini-player via seekToFromSync (WatchManager.handlePlaybackProgressUpdate).
• Phone → watch: the phone includes playedUpToModified in its now-playing state, and the watch applies the phone's paused position to its local player in SessionManager.handleStateUpdate (new WatchDataManager accessor).

To test

Use a paired iPhone + Apple Watch (or simulators) signed into the same Pocket Casts Plus account, with the watchPlaybackProgressLocalSync flag enabled.

Watch → phone:

1. On the watch, set the play source to Watch and play an episode.
2. Let it play ~15s, then pause on the watch.
3. Open that episode / Now Playing on the phone without tapping Refresh.

• Verify the phone shows the watch's position within a second or two.

Phone → watch:

1. With the same episode loaded on the watch (Watch source), play it on the phone, then pause.

• Verify the watch's Now Playing position updates to the phone's position without relaunching the watch app.

Flag off:

• Verify that with the flag disabled, progress only syncs after a manual "Refresh now" (previous behavior).

Phone to Watch local sync

Screen.Recording.2026-06-17.at.12.07.06.AM.mov

Watch to Phone local sync

Screen.Recording.2026-06-16.at.11.31.32.PM.mov

Checklist

• I have considered if this change warrants user-facing release notes and have added them to CHANGELOG.md if necessary.
• I have considered adding unit tests for my changes.
• I have updated (or requested that someone edit) the spreadsheet to reflect any new or changed analytics.

[pocketcasts]

Version 8.15 has now entered code-freeze, so the milestone of this PR has been updated to 8.16.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR adds a WatchConnectivity “fast-path” to sync paused playback progress locally between Apple Watch and iPhone (in both directions), so Now Playing/progress updates without requiring a manual “Refresh now” or a server round-trip.

Changes:

• Introduces a watchPlaybackProgressLocalSync feature flag (default on) to gate the behavior.
• Adds a new WatchConnectivity message (PlaybackProgressUpdate) plus a new now-playing field (playedUpToModified) to support last-write-wins conflict resolution.
• Implements watch→phone progress push on pause, and phone→watch progress application when the phone’s now-playing state updates.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 8 out of 8 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
podcasts/WatchConstants.swift	Adds message keys for playback progress updates and a now-playing playedUpToModified field key.
podcasts/Watch Communication/WatchManager.swift	Receives/apply watch→phone progress updates and includes playedUpToModified in the phone→watch now-playing payload.
Pocket Casts Watch App/UI/WatchSyncManager.swift	Sends watch→phone progress update on pause when the feature flag is enabled.
Pocket Casts Watch App/Data & Communication/WatchDataManager.swift	Adds accessor for now-playing playedUpToModified from the phone-sent state.
Pocket Casts Watch App/Data & Communication/SessionManager+Send.swift	Adds sendPlaybackProgress(...) message with guaranteed-delivery fallback.
Pocket Casts Watch App/Data & Communication/SessionManager.swift	Applies phone→watch paused progress to the local watch player using playedUpToModified last-write-wins.
Modules/Sources/PocketCastsUtils/Feature Flags/FeatureFlag.swift	Adds the watchPlaybackProgressLocalSync feature flag with default enabled.
CHANGELOG.md	Adds release note entry for instant watch/phone progress sync on pause.

[SergioEstevao]

I tested this today by installing the branch on my Watch and Phone.

[x] Update from Watch to Phone: where working correctly, when moving the position of the now play episode on the watch source and pausing after a couple of seconds the phone updated.

[x] Update from Phone to Watch: this didn't work for me. I move around the phone play position, paused. The Watch only updated when I force a refresh on the home screen on the watch.

[dericleeyy]

I tested this today by installing the branch on my Watch and Phone.

[x] Update from Watch to Phone: where working correctly, when moving the position of the now play episode on the watch source and pausing after a couple of seconds the phone updated.

[x] Update from Phone to Watch: this didn't work for me. I move around the phone play position, paused. The Watch only updated when I force a refresh on the home screen on the watch.

Was this on a physical device? Updating from phone to watch on the SIM seemed to work for me. Unfortunately, I dont have a physical Apple Watch to test on.

[dericleeyy]

Quick context on what's changed since your review, @SergioEstevao: the commit after your review ("Fix last-write-wins behavior") addressed a Copilot comment on the watch→phone path (preserving the payload's modifiedAt timestamp) — that's the direction you said worked, so it won't have changed what you saw.

I traced the phone→watch path and the phone side looks correct: on pause it bumps playedUpToModified and sends a fresh now-playing payload (with position + timestamp) via sendStateToWatch, triggered on both playbackPaused and playbackPositionSaved. So the update is being sent. The failure is on the watch's apply side, in applyPhoneNowPlayingProgress() — but every precondition there bailed with a silent return, so there was no way to tell why it didn't apply for you.

I've just pushed a commit that splits those guards and logs the specific reason (with values) on each reject path. Could you re-run the phone→watch test with this build and grab the watch logs? We're looking for a SessionManager: …phone progress… line — it'll either show which guard rejected it (e.g. "not newer", "episode mismatch", "no local current episode") or be absent entirely, which would tell us the message isn't reaching handleStateUpdate in the first place.

One thing I want to confirm on that note: the whole apply path is gated behind the watchTransferUserInfoApi flag — was that enabled in your build alongside watchPlaybackProgressLocalSync? If it was off, that alone would explain it.