OpenAI adds Apple Messages plugin letting ChatGPT read and send your texts

OpenAI has released an Apple Messages plugin for the ChatGPT desktop app on Mac, letting the assistant read, search, summarize, draft and send iMessage, SMS and RCS conversations through Apple’s Messages app. The plugin went live on Aug. 20.

It runs inside ChatGPT’s Work and Codex modes and works only on Apple Silicon Macs, not older Intel machines. By default, ChatGPT asks for explicit approval before sending any message, and OpenAI says the plugin operates locally using AppleScript and Apple’s Accessibility interfaces rather than building a general index of a user’s message history.

The convenience comes with a blunt privacy trade-off. Setup requires granting macOS Full Disk Access along with contacts and automation permissions — and Full Disk Access is all-or-nothing. Because macOS offers no way to share Messages alone, the same grant exposes Mail, Safari browsing history and Time Machine backups to the app.

That is a lot of surface area to hand an AI assistant for the sake of texting help. Users comfortable with the arrangement get an assistant that can triage threads and reply on their behalf; those who are not have no narrower option short of skipping the plugin.

The feature extends a broader push to give ChatGPT hands-on control of a user’s own applications rather than answering questions in isolation. How many people accept a full-disk permission to let an AI send their texts will be the real test of whether that trade is one users actually want.