OpenAI turns ChatGPT into an app hub, challenging the app store model
At its Dev Day event, OpenAI unveiled features that turn ChatGPT into a place where apps can be discovered, launched, and used by people and AI agents alike, paired with new autonomous agents called Dots.
OpenAI used its Dev Day event on Tuesday to unveil a set of features that together point toward a broader ambition: reshaping how software is discovered and used, in ways that challenge the traditional app store model. The company is turning ChatGPT, which it says now has 1.2 billion weekly users, into a surface where apps can be found, connected, and operated directly within a conversation.
ChatGPT will now suggest relevant apps mid-conversation when it detects a task the app could help with, letting users connect and use that app without leaving the chat. This is supported by an expanded plugin architecture featuring new extensions, which let developers build interactive panels for users to work with tools while chatting.
Shared identity and AI allowance
A new "Sign in with ChatGPT" feature lets users carry their AI allowance into third-party apps. Sixteen launch partners have joined, including Cognition's Devin, Notion, Vercel, T3, OpenClaw, and Dactyl, with more planned. In a demo, OpenAI showed a new meeting app working inside ChatGPT, displaying upcoming calendar meetings, letting AI take notes, and producing a follow-up summary afterward. Apps can be shared with colleagues via lightweight websites ChatGPT generates, where each person signs in with their own credentials.
OpenAI also improved how developers submit plugins for review, allowing them to track review status, request human review, and update tools without restarting the whole submission. Separately, the company launched an enterprise app marketplace with more than 30 partners at launch, including Adobe, Figma, Salesforce, HubSpot, and ServiceNow, where eligible customers can apply part of their OpenAI commitment toward partner software.
Autonomous agents called Dots
OpenAI also introduced autonomous AI agents called Dots, which can navigate tasks on a user's behalf using their own cloud computer and browser. Each Dot can connect to OpenAI's ecosystem of more than 4,000 apps and can proactively offer help or handle overlooked tasks, always with user approval, including background "proactive research" done in read-only mode.
OpenAI did not announce a billing or revenue-sharing system comparable to the economic layer traditional app stores rely on, focusing Tuesday instead on discovery, distribution, and identity.
