Texting duty has a new candidate: ChatGPT. OpenAI shipped an Apple Messages plugin for the macOS desktop app on August 20 that searches a Mac’s iMessage, SMS, and RCS history, summarizes threads, drafts replies, and fires off messages through the Messages app, with the same capability available inside Codex and ChatGPT Work.
Hardware limits who can use it. The plugin exists only in the Apple Silicon build of the desktop app, skipping Intel Macs entirely, and stays out of the web client, mobile apps, Codex CLI, and IDE extension. Full Disk Access is required, and the feature works on every plan.
Approval sits at the center of the design. The default is allow-once: ChatGPT shows content and recipients before sending, and the user confirms per message. An always-allow option exists per chat, but OpenAI’s docs warn against it for threads that may contain untrusted instructions, a direct acknowledgment of prompt injection risk. Standing permissions can be revoked in Settings under Computer Use.
OpenAI told TechCrunch the plugin builds no full index of messages, processes everything locally, and only reads texts when asked. Workspace admins can disable it through the Computer Use control, a switch that matters as OpenAI courts enterprise customers.
Reviewers who tried it found real utility in analyzing conversation patterns, though the feature is narrower than the marketing suggests. Texting the chatbot from a phone is not part of the release.
