OpenAI today announced the worldwide rollout of group chats in ChatGPT, allowing multiple people to collaborate with ChatGPT in a shared conversation. OpenAI started testing group chats with a small number of people last week, but the feedback was positive so it is now expanding the feature to everyone.
With group chats, ChatGPT users can create a shared conversation space and invite friends, family, or coworkers. Group chats are separate from private conversations, and OpenAI says that the group creator's personal ChatGPT memory is never shared with anyone in the chat.
According to OpenAI, group chats can be useful for planning a weekend trip with friends, designing a backyard garden, collaborating on design ideas, finding a restaurant that suits everyone's tastes, or settling debates. Group chats can also be used for research for school or work projects, incorporating shared articles, notes, and questions.
Creating a group chat can be done by tapping on the people icon in the top right corner of any new or existing chat. People can be invited by sharing a link, and anyone with the link can invite more people, with up to 20 supported. Group chats are aggregated in a clearly-labeled section of the sidebar, separate from personal chats.
OpenAI says ChatGPT was taught new social behaviors for group chats. It follows the flow of conversation and decides when to respond and when to stay quiet based on the context of the conversation. Mentioning ChatGPT in a message will prompt it to respond, and ChatGPT can react to messages with emojis.
Group chats are available to all logged-in users on free, Go, Plus, and Pro ChatGPT plans. OpenAI says that it will continue to refine the feature as more people start using it.
