Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority
TL;DR
- OpenAI is piloting group chats in the ChatGPT app, putting your friends and family in the middle of AI conversations.
- The company sees adding AI to group chats as a way to help with ideation and planning, like for parties or get-togethers.
- ChatGPT group invitations are sent as shareable links, meaning they can be reshared until 20 people are added.
OpenAI is searching for ways to turn its AI technology into consumer products that can compete with the likes of Meta and Google. It recently brought the Sora app, which offers a TikTok-like social feed for AI-generated videos, to the Google Play Store. Now, OpenAI is piloting group chats in ChatGPT. The feature will make it possible for users to chat with their friends and family while also tapping into ChatGPT for help.
Rather than a standalone direct messaging system, group chats in ChatGPT are a way to collaborate with others within an AI chat. Users can start a new conversation with ChatGPT or open an existing one to begin. From there, a new people icon will appear near the top-right corner of the app’s view, allowing users to add others to the ChatGPT conversation. The app creates a shareable link that can be sent to up to 20 people.
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Notably, the shareable ChatGPT group chat link is not private. Anyone a ChatGPT user shares an invite link to can also forward it to others, allowing them to join the conversation. The creator of the chat can remove people, mute notifications, or set a name for the group. For privacy, your personal ChatGPT memory is not used in group chats, and group discussions aren’t saved as memories.
After joining a chat, ChatGPT users will be prompted to set their name, username, and photo. Users only have to do this once. Beyond the initial setup, the app stores this information for use in future group chats.
Once created, group chats have a new home in the ChatGPT app sidebar. They live above the “Your chats” section in a new grouping called “Group chats.” Users can view a peek of the profile photos of the people in the chat next to the name of each group.
The AI-powered group chat features use GPT‑5.1 Auto, which dynamically switches between OpenAI models based on the request. All major ChatGPT features work within groups, including search, image and file upload, image generation, and dictation. OpenAI claims that it taught ChatGPT social behaviors to make AI group chats possible.
“It follows the flow of the conversation and decides when to respond and when to stay quiet based on the context of the group conversation,” the company explains. “We’ve also given ChatGPT the ability to react to messages with emojis, and reference profile photos—so it can, for example, use group members’ photos when asked to create fun personalized images within that group conversation.”
OpenAI is rolling out group chats starting now for all ChatGPT users across the Free, Go, Plus and Pro plans, as long as they are signed into their account. Availability is limited to users in Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and Taiwan at the moment, with further expansion likely to follow.
“This pilot is a small first step toward shared experiences in ChatGPT, and we expect to learn from early user feedback to inform how we expand to more regions and ChatGPT plans,” OpenAI says.
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