{"slug": "benedict-evans-on-the-new-super-app-chatgpt", "title": "Benedict Evans on the New ‘Super App’ ChatGPT", "summary": "Benedict Evans criticized the new ChatGPT app as a confusing, disorganized mess that reflects OpenAI's internal politics and org chart, contrasting it with the focused old app that remains on mobile. He argued the app has a polished veneer but lacks coherent structure, blaming senior executives' FOMO with Anthropic and a focus on AI research over product design.", "body_md": "Benedict Evans with a succinct review on Threads:\n\nWow, what a total mess.\n\nWhat is the difference between a project, a task and a chat?\n\nWhy did chats get a crappy floating window but tasks and projects don’t?\n\nWhy does choosing ‘plugins’ get me ‘templates’?\n\nAm I not allowed to finish ‘setup’ if I don’t use Slack or Google Drive?\n\nI forget how I made the Setup dickbar disappear despite my not using Slack or Google Drive. It was confusing.\n\nIt is sometimes observed that in companies dominated by internal politics, their shipped product (and public keynotes) reflect the company’s org chart. That’s never been truer than with the new ChatGPT app. OpenAI’s internal org chart is [a complete disorganized mess](https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/964489/openais-head-of-safety-is-out). This new app perfectly reflect that.\n\nThe old ChatGPT app was focused. That’s the app that still ships for mobile (which includes iPad, which tells you whether OpenAI thinks iPad is a real computer or a big iPhone), and is, for some Mac users, left installed on their systems as “ChatGPT Classic”. The new app is an incredibly confusing sloppy mess. At a glance it *looks* like a polished app. But the UI is [just slop](https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/06/chatgpt-slop.png). It has the veneer of a polished app without actually being organized or structured or labeled in ways that add clarity and coherence. It’s playing dress-up as a big-boy app. My understanding from people adjacent to OpenAI is that the company’s senior executives are singularly consumed with FOMO obsession regarding Anthropic, and the only A-team within the company are the AI researchers. Not product designers or app craftspeople.\n\nThe app icon for the new “super” app should be [the Homer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPc-VEqBPHI).", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/benedict-evans-on-the-new-super-app-chatgpt", "canonical_source": "https://www.threads.com/@benedictevans/post/Dano_uvDr8F", "published_at": "2026-07-11 22:16:21+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-11 22:41:23.257240+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-products", "ai-tools", "large-language-models"], "entities": ["Benedict Evans", "OpenAI", "ChatGPT", "Anthropic", "Slack", "Google Drive", "Apple"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/benedict-evans-on-the-new-super-app-chatgpt", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/benedict-evans-on-the-new-super-app-chatgpt.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/benedict-evans-on-the-new-super-app-chatgpt.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/benedict-evans-on-the-new-super-app-chatgpt.jsonld"}}