The ChatGPT desktop app can now read your iMessage history and send messages on your behalf. OpenAI shipped the integration this week for Macs running Apple silicon, and Apple, a company it is reportedly preparing to sue, was not part of the announcement.
The plugin reads and searches Messages conversations on the machine, covering iMessage, SMS, and RCS, and can draft and send replies. It will also analyse the archive, summarising who you talk to and what you talk about, which is a different capability from writing a text and a considerably more revealing one.
Sending is gated by default. Each outgoing message requires explicit approval, and OpenAI has been clear that this is the setting it expects people to keep.
Yet, users can turn that off. Granting persistent approval lets the model send without asking, and OpenAI’s own guidance advises taking care before doing so, which is an unusual thing for a company to say about a feature it built.
There is also a known defect. OpenAI acknowledges that certain tasks can disable the approval prompt, meaning the safety mechanism has a failure mode the company has documented rather than fixed.
