OpenAI is giving ChatGPT plug-ins dedicated sidebar homes, interactive panels and file viewers, according to TechCrunch’s September 29 report. The extensions let developers put more of their software inside ChatGPT, where users can work with an app alongside a conversation.
Together with app recommendations and agents that use connected tools, the changes make ChatGPT a place to find software as well as use it. The app-store comparison has a specific limit, though. TechCrunch’s analysis of the wider announcements says OpenAI announced no comparable billing or revenue-sharing system.
A plug-in becomes a place to work
Existing plug-ins connect ChatGPT to services such as Slack, SharePoint, Airtable and Google Drive. Extensions add interfaces people can operate within ChatGPT, including viewers for the file types a developer’s product supports.
OpenAI also introduced Plugin Creator and a revised submission process with clearer feedback. It says directory rankings and recommendations will improve, including suggestions during conversations. Users choose a plug-in and approve its access.
ChatGPT Sites can host supported plug-ins too. Colleagues can use a shared app with their own connected data and permissions. OpenAI is adding support for the proposed MCP Events specification so an event in a connected app can start an automation.
These changes cover different parts of using software. A recommendation helps someone choose a tool. A panel lets them operate it. An event can start work without a fresh chat request.
People and agents can use the same apps
TechCrunch describes OpenAI’s new Dots agents as having their own cloud computers and browsers, with access to connected apps. That gives software makers two potential users inside ChatGPT, the person working in a panel and the agent acting on a task.
The wider distribution plan also includes Sign in with ChatGPT, which lets people use their existing AI allowance in participating third-party apps. An enterprise marketplace lets eligible customers apply part of their OpenAI commitment toward approved partner software.
Those arrangements change how users reach software and pay for some AI use. TechCrunch says OpenAI has left separate third-party subscriptions and other charges unresolved. Bringing an account into ChatGPT therefore does not establish that the ChatGPT subscription covers the connected service.
