OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot runs in the web browser, but the company has also released a desktop version of its artificial intelligence (AI) assistant for macOS. Now, thanks to a newly released version of the ChatGPT Mac app, OpenAI has made it easier to multitask with the popular AI chatbot.
With the latest update, OpenAI has changed how ChatGPT works when you have other applications open. Previously, you could press the Option-Space keyboard shortcut to open ChatGPT’s Spotlight-like search box on your Mac. After typing your request and pressing Return, ChatGPT’s main window would appear in the foreground, even if it had previously been hidden behind another application window.
Now, things work a little differently. Let’s say you’re working in a web browser and then you press Option-Space to bring up the ChatGPT search box. After you enter your request and press Return, you’ll be presented with a small ChatGPT overlay that sits on top of your previous windows, instead of the main ChatGPT window.
This means you don't need to constantly switch apps – you can simply place the ChatGPT mini window on top of or next to everything else.
Update peculiarities
This change isn't the only update in the latest version of ChatGPT. OpenAI says it's also brought improvements to data analysis, so tables and charts generated by ChatGPT now have a new expandable view that you can interact with. On top of that, you can “customize and download charts for presentations and documents,” OpenAI says, and choose specific table cells for ChatGPT to perform deeper analysis on.
There are also several bug fixes and other improvements to the app, including the addition of several new keyboard shortcuts, additional customization options, performance and security improvements, and more.
It's worth noting that we encountered a strange situation when upgrading to the latest version of ChatGPT. Downloading the app from the OpenAI website gave us version 1.2024.199, which contained the new mini-window feature. However, updating the app to version 1.2024.212 apparently removed the new overlay.
A second time, downloading the app from the OpenAI website didn't get the new feature, but updating the app fixed the problem. If you're having trouble finding the feature after updating ChatGPT, it's worth trying a few different ways to download and update the app.
OpenAI hasn’t said exactly when we’ll see a Windows version of the ChatGPT desktop app, other than to say it’ll be coming later in 2024. However, if you have a Mac and want to try out ChatGPT’s new features, you can do so right away—as long as your Mac has an M1 chip or higher and is running macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later.
