Overview
- OpenAI released the Apple Messages plugin for the ChatGPT desktop app on Aug. 20, 2026, letting ChatGPT Work and Codex read, search, summarize, draft, edit, delete and send iMessage, SMS and RCS conversations from the Mac Messages app.
- The feature is limited to the macOS desktop app on Apple silicon Macs, is available across ChatGPT plans including free tiers, and does not work in standard ChatGPT chats or on Intel Macs.
- To operate the plugin users must grant macOS permissions such as Full Disk Access, contact access and automation use (AppleScript/Accessibility), and ChatGPT requires per-send approval by default while offering an optional persistent-approval setting that OpenAI warns carries risk.
- Privacy and consent experts and reporters note that granting the plugin access implicates other people in a user’s messages who cannot personally consent, and OpenAI says processing runs locally and that it does not create a global message index though technical specifics remain unclear.
- Administrators can disable the plugin in managed workspaces, Apple has not publicly commented, and the launch comes against a backdrop of legal friction between Apple and OpenAI that could shape scrutiny of the integration going forward.