What to expect from ChatGPT’s new features Including the one that lets you interact with external apps

Recently, OpenAI launched Sora, a new social network dedicated exclusively to videos generated through its artificial intelligence system. The app quickly reached the top spot among the most downloaded apps on Apple’s App Store in the United States and several other countries — however, it is not yet available in the European Union and the United Kingdom. The release of Sora by OpenAI reflects a broader strategy by the company to keep users engaged as much as possible within its digital ecosystem. Just before launching the new platform, Sam Altman’s company had introduced ChatGPT Pulse, a feature that allows the chatbot to autonomously start conversations with users, offering suggestions, activities, and personalized content. At the same time, ChatGPT has been enhanced with new tools and “agents”, software capable of browsing the web and performing tasks on behalf of users, thereby strengthening the increasingly direct and personal connection between the virtual assistant and those who use it.

In this context, OpenAI — during “DevDay 2025”, the series of events organized to present the latest software updates — announced a new ChatGPT feature with very high potential: the chatbot will be able to interact directly with external applications. This means that, for example, users will be able to book a hotel on Booking.com without leaving ChatGPT, or create a personalized playlist on Spotify simply by describing their musical tastes. Additionally, the system will be able to automatically suggest activating a particular app based on the conversation or user requests, accessing the relevant service’s data to display options, compare prices, and more — all without leaving the chat. A similar feature had already been tested on ChatGPT in the past, but only as an external extension — a plug-in installed via a dedicated store. With the new update, integration with third-party apps is now built directly into the chatbot. Thanks to this new ChatGPT feature, users already registered with an external service will be able to log in directly through the chatbot, using the data and preferences saved in their accounts.

This new infrastructure opens up new revenue opportunities for OpenAI, both through commercial agreements with the operators of major applications and via the introduction of a proprietary payment system called Instant Checkout. Specifically, this service will allow users to complete transactions without leaving the chat, representing a new source of income for OpenAI. The company, in fact, faces very high development and operational costs and, like many other players in the sector, is still trying to capitalize on the significant investments made in recent years — a situation that has raised considerable concerns within the tech industry.

Essentially, OpenAI is introducing various tools to make ChatGPT more profitable while trying not to compromise its widespread adoption. Sam Altman, however, has not provided many details on some crucial aspects that could influence the distribution of apps within ChatGPT. It is still unclear, for example, how the chatbot will handle the presence of multiple competing applications offering similar services, or how personal data provided by users will be managed. OpenAI has also not specified what information from conversations might be shared with external apps — a particularly sensitive issue from a privacy perspective. The uncertainty surrounding these aspects is likely one of the reasons the company has chosen not to make the new system available in the European Union yet, pending further evaluations and assurances — in the EU, user data protection regulations are among the strictest in the world.