What ChatGPT’s iMessage integration means for Siri

OpenAI launched an Apple Messages plugin for ChatGPT on Mac via ChatGPT Work and Codex, enabling the AI to find messages, summarize conversations, and compose and send texts. The plugin faces competition from Apple's improved Siri expected with iOS 27 in September, which will offer similar capabilities across Apple's ecosystem. Analysts suggest the plugin's appeal is limited to ChatGPT power users, while Apple's integration may be more convenient.

For over a decade, composing, searching, and sending Apple Messages with AI meant relying solely on Siri. OpenAI just changed that. On Thursday, the AI lab launched an Apple Messages plugin that lets ChatGPT assist with your text messaging needs, including finding specific messages, summarizing conversations, and composing and sending messages. At launch, it is limited to ChatGPT on your Mac via ChatGPT Work and Codex. While the description may make the plugin sound like just another feature that lazily helps you write or summarize a thread, the real-world help it can offer is far greater. For instance, in the demo video, a user asks ChatGPT which message threads from the previous day it should follow up on and gets a bulleted response that identifies each message and a suggested reply, which users can review and send. Another helpful use case is asking it to check your calendar and compose a text with a couple of free times. The big question about this plugin's value is less about the help it can offer users and more about how it differentiates itself from the AI users will get with the launch of iOS 27. Although that won't happen until the iPhone launch event and the broader release of iOS, both likely in September, Apple previewed improved Siri features at its WWDC event in May, which The Deep View covered in depth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RSpgHTMIV8 . The updates include a chatbot-like interface for Siri that would let users ask it to do everything the OpenAI plugin promises. Apple has yet to respond to a request for comment. The major difference is that with the Apple version, users can use it across their ecosystem of devices, not just on their Mac, which is far more convenient. The only argument in favor of the plug-in is that ChatGPT power users won't want to context-switch between the two AI interfaces. While that is true, with the launch of the new and improved Siri, users can also just ask Siri the same questions conversationally and get the answers, circumventing the need for ChatGPT altogether. Our Deeper View The reaction to this plugin on social media has been overwhelmingly positive, with people calling it a game-changer and celebrating OpenAI for unveiling an AI feature that could actually help in everyday life. This has been really interesting to see, as I didn't see quite as overwhelming a reaction during WWDC, which could be because it was just one of the many features announced. Both this announcement and the positive reaction to the foldables launched this summer by Samsung and Google are teeing up Apple to unveil its own counterparts in September. The momentum also confirms one thing: this iPhone launch event may be one of Apple's biggest in years. It's one to watch for both new AI developments and to see which new AI features Apple puts in the spotlight.