ChatGPT can now draft and send iMessages on Mac, but only in Codex and Work on Apple silicon

ChatGPT can now draft and send iMessages from a Mac, but the send button only works inside Codex and ChatGPT Work, and only on Apple silicon.

OpenAI shipped the Apple Messages plugin for the ChatGPT desktop app on macOS on August 20, across all plans. It can read and search your Messages history and prepare or send texts. OpenAI documents it in its plugin changelog and plugin guide. 9to5Mac, TechCrunch and MacRumors all covered it.

The tool is a local plugin that drives the Mac's own Messages app. It is not an Apple-blessed iMessage API, and it does not run ChatGPT from your phone.

OpenAI's own guide is precise about where sending lives: "In Codex and ChatGPT Work, it can read and search iMessage, SMS, and RCS chats on your Mac and send messages on your behalf through the Messages app." The reach across message types is broad. The surface is narrow. Regular ChatGPT chat, the mobile and web apps, the Codex CLI, and IDE extensions are out.

Hardware is the other fence, and it is the detail most wires skipped. "For this release, the Messages plugin is included only in the Apple Silicon (arm64) build of the ChatGPT desktop app." Intel Macs get nothing to enable.

OpenAI says the plugin is "available on all plans in the ChatGPT desktop app for macOS," so there is no paywall on the feature itself. The cost is in permissions. TechCrunch reports setup requires Full Disk Access. MacRumors adds that the plugin leans on AppleScript and Accessibility access, plus your contact names, to drive Messages.

By default, the guide says, "ChatGPT sends messages only after you approve the message and its recipients." The easy version of this story is that ChatGPT will now text people for you. The part those headlines drop is that last review.

You can skip the confirmation on a chat-by-chat basis. 9to5Mac notes an "Always allow sending to this chat" choice that OpenAI flags for its "persistent-approval risks" and pairs with revocation steps in the guide. Turn that on for a conversation and you have signed off on future sends to it in advance.

Full access cuts the other way. The plugin guide documents the known issue directly: "If your task is set to Full access or otherwise disables approval prompts, Apple Messages may be unable to show the confirmation needed to send. Switch to Ask for approval or Approve for me and try again." The autonomy setting people assume would make it send faster is the one the guide says can block the send.

Apple did not ship this. There is no Apple partnership and no official iMessage API. OpenAI told TechCrunch it does not build a full index of a user's messages and that the plugin runs locally on the device, the same local-processing posture behind its private, zero-data-retention safety processing. The launch also lands while Apple and OpenAI are in litigation.

The capability is real. It spans iMessage, SMS, and RCS. It just runs on your machine, under permissions you grant, and only after the review you choose to keep.

Some offers on this page may be paid placements or contain affiliate links.