ChatGPT’s Apps SDK: An App Store-Like Revolution?
OpenAI has unveiled a new Apps SDK for ChatGPT – essentially an app platform inside the AI chatbot. Announced at DevDay 2025, this launch lets developers build interactive applications that users can access within ChatGPT. Instead of switching to separate websites or apps, you can now ask ChatGPT to perform tasks using third-party services (think booking a hotel or searching for a house) and get results right in the chat. OpenAI partnered with companies like Booking.com, Expedia, Spotify, Figma, Coursera, Canva, and Zillow to roll out the first wave of ChatGPT-integrated apps. Many observers are comparing this moment to Apple’s App Store debut in 2008 – raising the question: Is this ChatGPT’s “App Store moment”?
The iPhone App Store’s Launch and Novel Experiences
When Apple launched the App Store in 2008, it unleashed a wave of creative, never-before-seen mobile apps that showed off what smartphones could do. Apple had worked closely with early developers to imagine apps that perfectly showcased the iPhone’s unique capabilities.
- Tilt-to-Play Gaming: Sega’s Super Monkey Ball let players steer a rolling monkey by tilting the phone, creatively using the iPhone’s built-in accelerometer — a novelty in mobile gaming at the time.
- Sensor Fun: Apps like iBeer and Lightsaber Unleashed turned the phone into a virtual beer mug or Jedi weapon — gimmicky, yes, but fresh and joyful in their use of touch and motion.
- Music Interaction: Smule’s Ocarina transformed the phone into a wind instrument. Users blew into the mic and tapped digital holes, creating a musical interface unlike anything before.
These early apps were proof-of-concept delights. Some were silly, but they signaled a new kind of interaction — and planted the seeds for tools and platforms that eventually reshaped everyday life.
ChatGPT’s Apps SDK: AI Meets Apps
So, what exactly is a ChatGPT app? It’s a third-party tool or service that runs directly inside a ChatGPT conversation. Ask ChatGPT to “find me hotels in Barcelona next weekend,” and it might automatically open the Booking.com app and return listings — all within the chat. These apps show up as interactive panels inside the conversation, giving you results from external services in a way that feels embedded, responsive, and native to the flow of chat.
Initial apps include Expedia (travel), Spotify (music), Canva and Figma (design), Coursera (learning), Zillow (real estate), and others. These span a range of use cases, hinting at ChatGPT’s ambition to become a single interface for many services. For developers, it’s an entirely new distribution surface — one that comes preloaded with 800M+ users and a conversational front-end. CEO Sam Altman called it “a new generation of apps that are interactive, adaptive, and personalized — that you can chat with.”
Lessons From the Last Two Tries
This isn’t OpenAI’s first attempt to turn ChatGPT into a platform. In 2023, it launched Plugins, which let users call services like WolframAlpha or Instacart via ChatGPT. The tools were powerful but buried behind toggles and required users to know what to invoke and when. Adoption was niche, and the feature was eventually deprecated.
Later, OpenAI introduced Custom GPTs and a GPT Store — giving users the ability to create, share, and monetize their own AI personalities and workflows. Despite early buzz, the experience struggled with discovery. Most GPTs languished unseen, and promised monetization for creators never took off. The GPT Store faded quietly.
These stumbles power the bear case: OpenAI has struggled to convert ChatGPT into a true third-party platform. Will users really adopt apps inside chat? And will developers find the incentive to build and maintain them?
What’s Different This Time?
A New Interface, Not a New Capability
Do ChatGPT’s new apps introduce truly net-new use cases, like the first iPhone apps did? Not quite. Many replicate services we already use via websites or mobile apps. The difference is interaction. You now complete tasks through plain conversation. What’s novel isn’t the function, but the frictionless access.
Zillow, Reimagined
Zillow’s ChatGPT app shows what this could look like. Rather than filter maps and tweak sliders, you describe what you want in natural language. “I’m looking for a townhouse in Chicago near good schools, under $750k.” ChatGPT refines the query and returns listings with visuals. It is a real estate search that feels more like chatting with a friend than filling out a form. That’s not a new tool — but it’s a new way to use one.
AI Coordination: A New Workflow
The magic may lie in how ChatGPT chains apps together. Plan a trip and it could pull from Expedia for flights, Booking.com for hotels, and even Zillow if you muse about buying there — all stitched together in one flow.
“Plan a warm getaway the second week of March for under $1,500.” ChatGPT pulls Expedia flights, books a hotel via Booking.com, suggests local tours, and drops the itinerary into your calendar — all in one thread.
This isn’t just faster. It introduces a new user behavior: commanding cross-service outcomes in plain English without opening a single tab.
The Verdict
This launch feels different. OpenAI has momentum, a clearer UI model, and a larger user base than during past attempts. It’s not yet a revolution — but the groundwork is there.
The early iPhone apps wowed us with novelty. ChatGPT apps aim to win on seamlessness. It may not slosh beer or tilt monkeys. But it might teach us to expect more from our software — and less from our tabs.
The opinions expressed in this newsletter are my own, subject to change without notice, and do not necessarily reflect those of Timeless Partners, LLC (“Timeless Partners”). More...
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