OpenAI is giving ChatGPT access to one of the more private parts of a Mac: the Messages app.
A new plugin lets ChatGPT read iMessages, SMS, and RCS conversations, find information buried in old chats, draft responses, and send messages. The feature is available through ChatGPT Plugins on Macs with Apple silicon.
The tradeoff is access. ChatGPT needs Full Disk Access, a broad macOS permission that allows an app to read protected files, including the databases where message history is stored. It also needs access to contacts and system automation features.
OpenAI recommends against giving ChatGPT standing permission to send messages, so users can approve each outgoing message before it’s sent.
The company sees the integration handling some of the tedious work that happens inside Messages. ChatGPT could check a calendar and respond to a dinner invitation with available times, find conversations that still need a reply, pull a birthday from an old message and add it to a calendar, or identify possible spam.
The plugin doesn’t rely on Apple’s Messages API. It uses AppleScript and macOS Accessibility features to control the Messages app, essentially operating it through tools already built into the Mac. It’s unclear whether Apple had any involvement in its development.
That could make the integration more fragile than one built around an official Apple interface. Changes to macOS or Messages could affect how it works, and Apple retains considerable control over the system permissions it relies on.
The timing is also unusual. Apple and OpenAI are currently fighting in federal court over a trade secrets lawsuit Apple filed in July, even as OpenAI continues to build software that reaches deeper into Apple’s platforms.
For now, access is limited. The Messages plugin works with ChatGPT Work and Codex on the Mac desktop app and isn’t available in regular ChatGPT conversations. Intel Macs aren’t supported.
It follows an Apple Health integration OpenAI introduced in the US in July. Together, the two features show where the company is taking ChatGPT on the Mac: beyond answering questions and toward acting on information already stored on a user’s devices.
Messages is a particularly consequential step in that direction. Letting ChatGPT answer a text can save a few minutes. Letting it read years of conversations requires a much bigger decision about how much access you’re willing to hand over.
