Overview
- OpenAI released a Messages plugin for the ChatGPT Mac app on August 20 that can search, summarize, draft and send iMessage, SMS and RCS conversations.
- Activating the feature requires users to grant macOS permissions such as Full Disk Access plus contacts and automation rights, which lets the app read message history synced through iCloud.
- OpenAI says all processing happens locally on Apple Silicon Macs, that it does not build a full message index, and that the plugin asks for user approval before sending each message by default.
- Privacy experts counter that once a Mac user grants access the plugin can retrieve years of other people’s conversations without notifying those people or giving them a way to revoke access.
- The rollout complicates Apple–OpenAI relations because Apple has sued OpenAI over alleged theft of hardware secrets and is developing its own on‑device AI, while regulators may view the exposure risk through the lens of past GDPR cases about 'shadow' data collection.