OpenAI has launched a new Apple Messages plugin that lets ChatGPT read, draft, and send texts on users’ behalf.
The feature, which arrived August 20, works inside the ChatGPT desktop app for macOS on Apple Silicon Macs only, according to OpenAI’s release notes. It operates within Codex and ChatGPT Work, the company’s agentic work surfaces, rather than in ordinary ChatGPT chats. Users install it from the Plugins tab, then grant macOS permissions including Full Disk Access before the tool can touch their message history.
“The Apple Messages plugin is available on all plans in the ChatGPT desktop app for macOS,” OpenAI wrote on its plugin documentation page. “In Codex and ChatGPT Work, it can read and search iMessage, SMS, and RCS chats on your Mac and send messages on your behalf through the Messages app.”
OpenAI product lead Ari Weinstein described the release on X as a native integration of ChatGPT with Apple Messages, though reporting indicates it uses AppleScript and Accessibility tools rather than a first-party Apple API.
By default, ChatGPT sends messages only after users approve both the content and recipients through an “Allow once” choice per send. Users can alternatively select “Always allow sending to this chat,” which grants persistent approval for future messages to that thread without repeated prompts.
“Keep per-send approval for chats that may contain untrusted or misleading instructions,” OpenAI warned in its plugin documentation. “Persistent approval removes your final chance to review a message before ChatGPT sends it as you.”
The company added that the plugin runs locally on the Mac and uses existing operating system tools to work with the Messages app. OpenAI told Bloomberg that “it requires a user’s consent and doesn’t create an index of all someone’s messages.”
Despite these assurances, privacy concerns surfaced quickly after the announcement. The feature requires Full Disk Access because Messages history lives at `~/Library/Messages/chat.db`, meaning any tool with that grant can query years of conversations. Critics noted that contacts on the other end of threads never opted into OpenAI processing their side of conversations.
“Being able to catch up and reply to messages without switching apps is a nice touch,” one user wrote in response to OpenAI’s promotional video.
“Drafting my replies for me: magnificent, and i still won’t read them,” quipped another.
A third person said: “Holy [expletive] I need this [expletive] for going through old messages like you wouldn’t believe.”
Others suggested OpenAI add the plugin to WhatsApp too, which is owned by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta.
The release comes as OpenAI expands its enterprise offerings. Workspace administrators can switch Apple Messages off through the existing Computer Use control, the same mechanism governing other desktop-agent capabilities. The company has told investors that its enterprise revenue has overtaken the ChatGPT consumer business.
In the viral moment that preceded this rollout, OpenAI had been building out agentic capabilities throughout 2026, including ChatGPT Work as a long-running task agent and Codex with computer use on Mac and Windows. The Messages plugin represents the most personally sensitive surface the company has added to that stack so far. Apple and OpenAI are already in court over separate trade-secret claims, adding tension to any third-party integration with Apple’s native apps.
For managed deployments, IT departments retain veto power over the feature. The plugin ships only in the Apple Silicon (arm64) build, excluding Intel Macs, and does nothing in ChatGPT on the web, mobile apps, Codex CLI, or IDE extensions. OpenAI also warned that tasks configured with full access or otherwise stripped of approval prompts may leave Messages unable to display the send confirmation, advising users to switch such tasks back to approval mode.
OpenAI separately announced that pinned chats now stay in sync across the ChatGPT desktop app and iOS, and users can share read-only snapshots of local Codex threads.
The ChatGPT desktop app with Apple Messages plugin is available now for Apple Silicon Mac users on all plans.