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

OpenAI shipped an Apple Messages plugin for the ChatGPT desktop app on macOS on August 20, released across all plans, that can read and search your Messages history and prepare or send texts. The part that actually sends, though, lives inside Codex and ChatGPT Work, not the regular chat window. OpenAI documents it in its plugin changelog and plugin guide, and 9to5Mac, TechCrunch and MacRumors all covered it. The instrument is a local plugin that drives the Mac's own Messages app, not an Apple-blessed iMessage API and not a way to run ChatGPT from your phone.

The instrument: a local Messages plugin, gated to Codex and Work

Read the scope before the headline. OpenAI's own guide is precise about where the send capability 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." So the reach across message types is broad, covering iMessage, SMS and RCS, but the surface is narrow. This is not a toggle in a consumer ChatGPT chat, not the mobile or web app, and not the Codex CLI or an IDE extension. It is the macOS desktop client, and the send path runs inside Codex and Work.

The hardware line is the other half of the fence, and it is the number the wires mostly skipped. Per the plugin guide, "for this release, the Messages plugin is included only in the Apple Silicon (arm64) build of the ChatGPT desktop app." Intel Macs are out. If you are on an older Intel machine, there is nothing to enable.

The number under the headline: all plans, but it needs the keys to your Mac

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 granting Full Disk Access, and MacRumors adds that the plugin leans on AppleScript and Accessibility access, plus your contact names, to drive Messages. This is computer-use automation of an app you already own, not a cloud integration Apple signed off on. By default, the guide says, "ChatGPT sends messages only after you approve the message and its recipients," so the normal flow puts a human review in front of every outbound text.

The approval gate the "ChatGPT can text for you" headlines skip

The easy version of this story is that ChatGPT will now text people for you. The detail those headlines drop is the approval gate, and two different settings sit around it. The one that actually removes your last review is per-conversation: 9to5Mac notes you can skip the confirmation on a chat-by-chat basis, 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, so that is the setting to leave off.

Full access is a separate thing, and it cuts the other way: rather than sending without a prompt, it can stop the send from happening. 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." So a task with Full access can leave the plugin unable to surface the confirmation UI, and the message does not go out until you move the task back to Ask for approval or Approve for me. The autonomy setting people assume would make it send faster is the one the guide says can block the send.

Not Apple's project, and not a message index

Worth stating plainly, because the framing invites the opposite read: Apple did not ship this. There is no Apple partnership and no official iMessage API here. It is OpenAI's client automating the Mac's Messages app through system permissions, which is why it needs Full Disk Access and AppleScript rather than a developer key. OpenAI told TechCrunch it does not build a full index of a user's messages and that the plugin runs locally on the device, a claim that speaks to the same local-processing posture behind OpenAI's private, zero-data-retention safety processing. The launch also lands while Apple and OpenAI are in litigation, so any "Apple would hate this" line is commentary, not a company position.

The takeaway

If you are on an Apple silicon Mac and you want ChatGPT drafting your iMessages, enable the plugin inside Codex or ChatGPT Work, grant the Full Disk Access it asks for, and leave the per-send approval on. Keep the two settings straight: "Always allow sending to this chat" is the one that removes your last review before a text goes out, so leave it off, while a Full access task is the documented case where the confirmation UI may fail to appear and the send stalls until you switch it back to Ask for approval or Approve for me. The capability is real and it is broad, spanning iMessage, SMS and RCS. It just runs on your machine, under permissions you grant, and it is only as safe as the review you choose to keep.