OpenAI to let developers build apps that work inside ChatGPT

By Matthew Griffin Intelligence and the Senses 30th September 2025

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

Increasingly OpenAI is positioning ChatGPT as your new operating system and UI – they’re trying to build a trillion dollar company.

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OpenAI is about to become Apple – that is to say it’s about to become a digital landlord, creating the hardware where everyone else’s apps, digital, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) ‘stuff’ lives. They’re launching a new way for developers to build applications inside of ChatGPT.

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Starting Monday, users in ChatGPT will be able to access interactive applications from companies like Booking.com, Expedia, Spotify, Figma, Coursera, Zillow, and Canva. OpenAI is also launching a preview of the Apps SDK, the developer-facing toolkit to build these apps.

OpenAI made the announcement at its annual developer conference, DevDay 2025.

“We want ChatGPT to be a great way for people to make progress, to be more productive, more inventive, to learn faster, to do whatever they’re trying to do in their lives better,” said CEO Sam Altman. “[Apps inside of ChatGPT] will enable a new generation of apps that are interactive, adaptive, and personalized, that you can chat with.”

You can now chat with apps in ChatGPT. pic.twitter.com/T9Owi3POim

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) October 6, 2025

The new system is OpenAI’s latest attempt to build an ecosystem of apps around its flagship AI product, ChatGPT. The launch follows OpenAI’s previous attempts to let developers build interactive applications, such as through its GPT Store. Unlike that product, which was a separate app store, Monday’s launch puts apps directly in ChatGPT’s responses and lets users call up third-party tools in their everyday conversations. This gives developers better distribution for the apps they build and aims to make a richer experience for users in ChatGPT.

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By typing the names of different apps in ChatGPT, users can draw in content from a variety of services. For example, users can say, “Figma, turn this sketch into a workable diagram” to call up the Figma app. Users can also call up the Coursera app by asking, “Coursera, can you teach me something about machine learning?”

In a demo of Zillow’s application, users could prompt ChatGPT in natural language to search for apartments in their area within a specific price range. ChatGPT then pulled up an interactive map showing options, and users could talk with ChatGPT to learn more about each one.

ChatGPT will also surface relevant apps when they could be helpful to a user. If someone asks for a playlist for a party this weekend, ChatGPT may call up the Spotify app in the conversation. In the future, OpenAI says apps like DoorDash, Instacart, Uber, and AllTrails will be available in ChatGPT as well.

OpenAI says the new system is built using the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which allows developers to connect their data sources to an AI system. ChatGPT apps can also trigger actions and render a fully interactive UI in the chatbot’s responses. Certain apps are able to display videos in ChatGPT, which will be pinned to the top of the web page and can be altered based on user requests.

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If users are already subscribed to a product, they’ll be able to log in to their account directly in ChatGPT to access certain features. Altman also says OpenAI will support ways to monetize apps inside of ChatGPT in the future, including through the company’s recently launched Instant Checkout feature in ChatGPT.

Key questions around apps in ChatGPT will be privacy, and how much data third-party developers will have access to. OpenAI says developers must “collect only the minimum data they need, and be transparent about permissions.” However, it’s unclear whether developers would have access to a user’s entire conversation with ChatGPT, the past few messages, or just the prompt that summoned up the app.

It’s also unclear how ChatGPT will choose a service between competing companies, such as DoorDash and Instacart. One could imagine how companies could pay to be surfaced in ChatGPT responses, but OpenAI says it plans to prioritize the user experience above all else.

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Described by NASA as a "Walking Encyclopaedia of the Future" and one of the world’s most in demand keynote speakers Matthew Griffin, Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm, is a multi-award winning Futurist and strategic foresight expert, author, lecturer, mentor, podcast and YouTube host.

With a distinguished career running global business units at Atos, EMC, and IBM today Matthew helps leaders and titans of industry from all over the world explore the impact of the inter sections of technology, culture, and leadership, then helps them create high performance organisations that can continuously disrupt, outpace, and outthink their competition.

15 times author of the hit series the Codex of the Future series Matthew's ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends on global business, culture, and society has earned him a powerful reputation and a roster of clients that include royal households, world leaders across the G7, G20, and G77, and many of the world's most recognised and exceptional organisations including ABB, Accenture, ABN Amro, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi Group, Coca Cola, Deloitte, Dentons, Disney, Dow, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Microsoft, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Nokia, Paramount, PepsiCo, PWC, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, T-Mobile, UBS, Visa, WIRED, WPP and hundreds of others.

Matthew is regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, and his mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.