OpenAI is giving ChatGPT deeper access to the Mac, adding an integration with Apple’s Messages app that allows the AI assistant to search, read, summarize, draft and send communications across iMessage, SMS and RCS.
The new capability is available through the ChatGPT desktop app for Mac and represents another step toward turning ChatGPT from a conversational chatbot into an AI assistant capable of taking actions across users’ applications.
With permission, ChatGPT can search conversations stored in Apple Messages and answer questions about them, summarize exchanges and help users compose messages. The integration can also interact with the Messages app to send communications on a user’s behalf.
The feature operates separately from the ChatGPT integration built into Apple Intelligence. Mac users must specifically enable the Messages connection and grant the necessary permissions through both ChatGPT and macOS.
OpenAI said the system requires explicit user consent and does not build a separate index containing a user’s entire message history. Instead, the integration runs locally on the Mac and relies on existing macOS technologies, including AppleScript and Accessibility tools, to communicate with the Messages application.
The permission structure is designed to give users greater control over access to potentially sensitive conversations. At the same time, the feature underscores a growing privacy challenge as AI assistants move beyond answering questions to accessing personal information and performing actions within other applications.
The Messages integration follows OpenAI’s expansion into other sources of personal data. ChatGPT recently added support for analyzing information from Apple’s Health app on iPhone and iPad, subject to user authorization.
The broader strategy points toward increasingly agentic versions of ChatGPT that can work across applications rather than requiring users to manually copy information into a chat window.
For Apple, the development also creates another avenue for AI capabilities on the Mac beyond Apple Intelligence, while giving OpenAI a more direct role in how Mac users interact with their communications.