If you use a ChatGPT dot, you no longer need to open the ChatGPT app to talk to it. On 28 October, ChatGPT announced that you can now text your dot over iMessage or RCS, and that it will text you proactively when there is something worth telling you. The change was reported by 9to5Mac, which quoted ChatGPT's own announcement.
What a dot is
OpenAI introduced dots at its DevDay event on 29 September. They are always-on agents that live inside ChatGPT, keep working in the background and learn from your feedback. At launch, OpenAI staff described them as having their own computer and browser and being able to connect to thousands of apps. Until this week, you could only reach your dot inside the ChatGPT app on mobile, desktop and web, or through Slack.
How to set up texting
According to ChatGPT's announcement, setup takes two steps:
- Open your dot's profile in ChatGPT.
- Select Texting and follow the prompts to connect your number.
OpenAI says your dot keeps the same context and plugins wherever you reach it, so a task you started in the app carries on in your messages.
What you can send it
The announcement lists three kinds of messages. You can send plain text, photos or voice notes. You can hand your dot a task to take off your plate, or ask it to keep an eye on something, and it will text you with relevant updates. In practice that means a few useful patterns:
- A watch request, such as asking it to text you if a flight price drops below a number you set.
- A photo of a whiteboard, receipt or printed page with a request to turn it into something usable.
- A voice note with a rough idea that you want back as a short email or a to-do list.
- A recurring nudge, such as a Friday afternoon summary of what you said you would do that week.
The privacy line, and what is still unclear
ChatGPT's announcement says texting does not give your dot or OpenAI access to your other text conversations. Anything you send to the dot itself does become part of its context, so the usual rule applies, which is to avoid sending things you would not paste into a chat window.
Some details are not confirmed yet. The announcement, as quoted by 9to5Mac, does not list which plans or countries get texting. When dots launched, OpenAI staff described them as included in the Pro plan, but that may not be the whole picture. The simplest check is to open your dot's profile and see whether the Texting option appears. 9to5Mac also speculated that texting could bring dots to the Apple Watch, which OpenAI has not announced.
Why this matters
The interesting part is the direction of the conversation. For most people, AI has been something you go to. A dot that texts you when a price drops or a deadline gets close turns that around, and texting is the one channel almost everyone checks. Our honest view is that this will be useful for watch-and-alert jobs and less useful for long work, which still belongs in the full app where you can see sources and edit drafts.
What to do this week
If you have a dot, switch on texting and give it exactly one thing to watch, such as a price, a delivery or a deadline. After a week, decide whether its texts saved you a check or just added noise. If you are still choosing between assistants, our ChatGPT guide in Learn covers the basics, and our earlier piece on ChatGPT reading iCloud mail and calendar explains the plugin side.