OpenAI announced on Thursday the global launch of group chats in ChatGPT for users on Free, Go, Plus, and Pro plans. This rollout follows a one-week pilot in regions such as Japan and New Zealand. The feature enables multiple users to collaborate with one another and ChatGPT within a single shared conversation, expanding its utility beyond individual interactions.
The introduction of group chats transforms ChatGPT from a solitary assistant into a collaborative platform where friends, family members, or colleagues can jointly plan activities, generate content, and reach decisions. OpenAI describes this as a tool that facilitates group efforts in various scenarios. For instance, participants can coordinate travel itineraries by pooling ideas and preferences. They can co-author documents, merging inputs from different contributors in real time. Group chats also support resolving disagreements through structured discussions. Additionally, teams can conduct joint research, where members contribute questions and insights collectively.
In these sessions, ChatGPT assists by performing searches to retrieve relevant information, summarizing lengthy content into key points, and comparing alternatives to highlight differences and similarities. This integration ensures the AI contributes value without dominating the exchange. The platform limits participation to a maximum of 20 individuals, provided each has accepted an invitation to join. Privacy measures remain intact, with personal settings and conversation memory confined to individual users, preventing cross-access to sensitive data.
Users initiate a group chat by selecting the people icon within the ChatGPT interface and inviting participants either directly from their contacts or by generating a shareable link. Upon joining, every member must create a brief profile including their name, username, and a photo, which helps identify contributors visually. If someone is added to an ongoing chat, the system generates a fresh conversation thread, preserving the integrity of the original discussion without alterations.
During interactions, ChatGPT monitors the flow to determine appropriate moments for intervention, remaining silent unless prompted. Users activate its input by tagging “ChatGPT” in messages, directing the AI to respond specifically. Furthermore, ChatGPT can engage more dynamically by reacting to user messages using emojis and by referencing participants’ profile photos in its replies, enhancing the conversational context.
