OpenAI will now let third-party apps operate directly inside ChatGPT and Canva is one of the first to be added.
The update, called ‘Apps in ChatGPT’, was announced at the company’s annual DevDay in San Francisco. It allows users to call on services like Canva mid-chat, which will appear “naturally” in the conversation.
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For example, ChatGPT might suggest Spotify when a user mentions playlists, or Canva when asked to create a presentation. This functionality can also be invoked directly by name, such as “Spotify, make a playlist for my Friday party”.
How Canva works in ChatGPT
Canva is one of seven pilot partners launching today, alongside Booking.com, Coursera, Expedia, Figma, Spotify and Zillow.
Its integration brings full design creation, editing and translation into ChatGPT. It also expands on Canva’s previous ‘deep research’ connector that allowed users to search and summarise their Canva files through the chatbot.
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Users will be able to generate context-aware designs, preview them in full screen, and make large-scale text edits within a single conversation.
Canva says the aim is to help people work where they already are, whether that’s drafting marketing materials or revising presentation decks.
This news comes just a week after OpenAI announced its new on-platform shopping feature. This raised questions around the future monetisation potential of ChatGPT, particularly when it comes to ads and commercial partnerships.
In a live demo, OpenAI staff showed ChatGPT using Canva to design a poster for a dog-walking business, then turning that design into a pitch deck, illustrating how multiple apps can work together within a single chat.
Who can use Apps in ChatGPT?
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Apps in ChatGPT is now available to all logged-in ChatGPT users across Free, Go, Plus and Pro plans. Enterprise, Business and Education access is expected later this year.
This is one of the rare times where OpenAI has rolled out a major feature to consumer-tier users before enterprise and pro. This is to possibly harness early adoption, which is great for the partner apps, and developer feedback before having users pay for it.
Developers can also start building their own apps using the new Apps SDK, which has been released in preview. The SDK lets developers design both the logic and interface of their apps, and connect them directly to their existing backends.
Later this year, OpenAI plans to open app submissions for review, launch a searchable directory, and introduce monetisation options through a new ‘Agentic Commerce Protocol’ for in-chat transactions.