OpenAI has released an official iOS app for its popular chatbot ChatGPT, and says an Android version will follow “soon.” The app is free of charge, keeps track of your chat history on the web, and supports voice input, powered by OpenAI’s open-source speech recognition system Whisper. The app is compatible with both iPhones and iPads and can be downloaded from the App Store here. OpenAI says it’s launching the app in the US first and will expand to other countries “in the coming weeks.”
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The launch of the app was not anticipated by OpenAI, but it was a logical move considering the huge popularity of ChatGPT. The AI chatbot debuted last November and quickly gained traction. Some external estimates suggest the app reached 100 million users by January this year, though OpenAI has never verified these numbers.
The app’s launch is noteworthy, given OpenAI’s somewhat cautious approach to marketing ChatGPT. Although the chatbot started as an experiment, it soon found a consumer audience who use the bot for various purposes, from writing college essays to business applications. In February, OpenAI introduced a premium subscription for the app, ChatGPT Plus, which offers faster access and responses generated using the company’s latest language model, GPT-4. It costs $20 a month.
Until now, the best way to use OpenAI’s language models on mobile has been to use Microsoft’s Bing app, which provides access to the company’s GPT-4-powered chatbot. An official app from ChatGPT will likely attract some of these users away from Microsoft, which has been using access to its chatbot as a way to promote Bing and Edge. The launch of an official ChatGPT should also, hopefully, prevent people from signing up for the numerous spam and fake apps that claim to offer access to the chatbot on mobile.
Of course, ChatGPT has the same problems on mobile as it does on the web. These include the bot’s tendency to make up information with complete confidence, and privacy fears.
