OpenAI has launched a chat feature for ChatGPT that lets users collaborate directly within the app.
Collaborative Features and Use Cases
The feature was initially tested in select regions including Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and Taiwan, the company announced earlier this month.
The pilot was a “small first step” toward creating a more “shared experience” in ChatGPT, OpenAI said. Early users were invited to provide feedback to help shape how the feature eventually expands to more regions and offerings, according to OpenAI.
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Users can now plan, make decisions, and collaborate together while ChatGPT helps search, summarize, generate content, and keep everyone on the same page. OpenAI provides use cases such as panning events, dinners, and game nights with friends or family.
The feature is available to Free, Go, Plus, and Pro users on both mobile and web platforms.
Privacy and Safety Controls
Private chats and personal ChatGPT memory will stay completely private, OpenAI said.
Group chats are invitation-only, and members can leave at any time, OpenAI stated, adding that most participants can remove others, though the group’s creator can only leave voluntarily.
For users under 18, content is filtered, with extra safeguards and parental controls in place. "You can let ChatGPT respond automatically or only when mentioned by someone in the group chat, but your personal ChatGPT memory is never used," AIPRM Engineer Tibor Blaho, who previewed the group chats, said earlier this month.
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Context: Altman’s Criticism of Workplace Communication Tools
The feature comes after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman criticized Slack, saying that he suspects it creates "a lot of fake work." Altman also suggested during a "Conversations with Tyler" podcast earlier this month that having an AI inside an app like Slack where “you are trusting your AI agent and my AI agent to work most stuff out and escalate to us when necessary” could be a better option.
How to Set Up and Use Group Chats
To start a group chat, users must tap the people icon and add participants, either directly or by sharing a link, OpenAI said. Groups can include one to 20 people, and if someone is added to an existing chat, a new group is created, leaving the original conversation unchanged. Each group has a short profile, and all chats are organized in a labeled sidebar for easy access, OpenAI said.
Group chats work just like regular ChatGPT conversations but with multiple people joining in, according to OpenAI. GPT-5.1 Auto handles responses and comes with features such as search, image generation, file uploads, and dictation. ChatGPT’s usage limits in group chats only count when ChatGPT responds, according to the company that explained messages between human participants don’t count toward these limits.
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Canvas, Voice mode, Python/Data Analysis, Deep Research, Tasks, Connectors, and Apps, and Agent mode were not available in group chats at launch, OpenAI stated. These features remain available in other parts of ChatGPT depending on the user’s plan but are not yet supported in group chats, OpenAI explained.
OpenAI’s Evolution Toward Social Platform
The group chat feature is the latest step in OpenAI’s gradual transformation from a simple AI assistant into something resembling a social platform, according to TechCrunch. OpenAI launched Sora 2, a standalone social media app with a TikTok-style feed for sharing AI-generated videos, complete with algorithmic recommendations based on user activity and location, parental controls, and direct messaging capabilities, in late September.
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