Will ChatGPT Become A Social Media App? OpenAI Tests DM Feature

OpenAI seems to be extending ChatGPT’s capabilities beyond conversational AI. The company appears to be testing elements that might turn ChatGPT into a social media platform. According to reports, the company is testing group chat and direct messages (DMs) in the ChatGPT app.

Tibor Blaho, lead engineer at AIPRM.com, a browser plugin that offers prompt templates for large language models (LLMs), stated about the new DM functionality in a post on X (formerly Twitter). Blaho said the feature, called Calpico and Calpico Rooms, is present in the Android beta version of ChatGPT.

“‘Direct Messages’ has now been added to the ChatGPT Android app (version 1.2025.273 beta) - codename ‘Calpico’ / ‘Calpico Rooms’,” he wrote in his post, dated Oct. 2.

It is said to be similar to the DM feature that OpenAI already has on the Sora app for iPhone. “Direct messaging was first introduced yesterday in the new Sora 2 iOS app, and now code references in the ChatGPT Android app show it includes direct messaging too.”

Here’s the post:

In another X post, Blaho explained that users can now work together with ChatGPT. They can enable or disable the assistant’s auto-response, rename and update its personality. Users can also block accounts, brainstorm ideas, plan, ask questions, search, create images and chat together. Invite links can also be used to bring others into the group chat. Blaho addd that no one in the conversation will be able to access your personal ChatGPT memory.

The potential move comes amid OpenAI’s recent flurry of product launches. Last month, the company introduced Sora 2, a video generation model, followed by a TikTok-style app for AI-generated videos under the same name. Earlier this month, OpenAI unveiled its Apps SDK, allowing developers to build specialised AI apps within ChatGPT.

ChatGPT already has an independent agent that can carry out activities like surfing websites, engaging with online interfaces, and information extraction.

Privacy issues might come into play when OpenAI ventures into social functionality. The company previously had to withdraw a feature that enabled ChatGPT conversations to be displayed in Google search results following user privacy complaints. Although the content indexed did not include directly identifiable data, it sometimes contained sufficient detail to make guesses about a user’s identity. OpenAI said it was a “short-lived experiment” and removed it following a report by Fast Company.