Official ChatGPT app for Windows will be available later this year, but macOS can try now

It’s been quite a day for OpenAI. The Microsoft-backed company has just launched its new model, GPT-4o, during Monday’s “Spring Update” event. A ChatGPT desktop app also got considerable airtime, but will it ever arrive on Windows?

In its demo, OpenAI’s CTO Mira Murati demonstrates that the desktop app will have a Voice assistant feature that makes talking to AI feel so natural. It can talk and understand emotions, process images, do code analysis, and even a real-time language translation. Sort of like that Samantha from Spike Jonze’s “Her” movie.

The official ChatGPT app for Windows is coming out “later this year,” as OpenAI says in the official announcement. But, if you’re a macOS user with a ChatGPT Plus subscription plan, you may be able to take the new desktop app for a spin starting now.  

That’s sort of ironic actually, considering how Microsoft poured billions of dollars into investment for OpenAI, but instead, it launched the most wanted AI app on macOS first. But, with an upcoming Microsoft Build event on the horizon, we may see hints at the ChatGPT app for Windows.

“The new voice (and video) mode is the best compute interface I’ve ever used. It feels like AI from the movies; and it’s still a bit surprising to me that it’s real. Getting to human-level response times and expressiveness turns out to be a big change, OpenAI’s boss Sam Altman says in his blog.

OpenAI’s GPT-4o, however, was the model that took the most airtime during the live stream. Available for both free and paid users of ChatGPT, GPT-4o will apparently bring the “GPT-4 level of intelligence” for free users.