In October, OpenAI outlined plans to transform ChatGPT into a platform for apps. So far, the AI chatbot has answered your questions, researched on your behalf, created images, and even did a bit of autonomous work in the web browser. Now it’s turning into a hub for apps you publish every day.
A few days ago, the ChatGPT App Store finally went live and the company has already invited developers to submit their apps. The basic idea behind the initiative is that instead of opening apps on your phone, you can simply turn to ChatGPT and tell it to do the work.
“Show me 1BHK home deals under $800,000 in Ridgewood area on Zillow.” “Create a poster for an organic kimchi company focused on handmade recipes in Canva.” You get the idea, right? The goal here is to skip multi-step tasks in apps and just let ChatGPT handle them.
Of course, you need to link your apps (or user account) to ChatGPT, so there’s this puzzle you need to solve first. There are currently about sixty apps available in the App Store, and after trying them out, here are my favorites.
Apple Music
This is my favorite music streaming app, and it also happens to be the most disorganized. I’m also surprisingly lazy when it comes to discovering music, and unless the algorithm recommends something really impressive, I can play the same two songs on a loop for hours.
With Apple Music in ChatGPT, it’s become a bit easier for me to discover new music or even create playlists based on a specific song. For example, I simply typed “Find songs similar to Mabalash by Hamaki and create a playlist called “Soul” in Apple Music.”
Shortly after I pressed enter, the AI chatbot took about a minute and created a new playlist with eight songs. No poster was created for the playlist, but the tracks included were mostly on point.
Canva
I create a few dozen images a day in Canva. In addition to my own work as a journalist and supporting my sister in her role as an aspiring fashion designer, I have to edit and improve specific media content and website visuals in Canva thanks to a shared subscription.
I love the manual controls, but in a few cases I just need a fair amount of cropping to get the image into a specific aspect ratio. For such low-stakes tasks, I simply upload the image and tell ChatGPT the requirements as a voice command. I don’t even have to open Canva and I can download the edited images directly from the chat window.
To brainstorm, I often grab images from Pinterest and ask ChatGPT to create a few concept sketches with the specific tweaks and modifications. It’s quick and very useful when you’re on the go, short on time, or just want to get some work done right on your phone.
booking
For me, booking is a lifeline. I’ve been living out of a suitcase for almost half a decade, working in different cities throughout the year. My contact point for finding accommodation. The adventure is quite fulfilling, but the effort of finding a suitable place to stay overnight just drains my soul.
It’s boring, monotonous and time-consuming. This is where ChatGPT comes to the rescue. I simply filled in the required details and the job was done in about a minute. This was my request:
“Find me long stay options in Dharamkot for one person between December 14 and January 14. Prefer places with a kitchen and prioritize homestays or guest houses.”
And what you see in the image above is the result. In addition to the top picks presented as an image carousel, ChatGPT also listed five other options for me to explore depending on my needs. It saved me all the hassle of setting up filters, entering details, and narrowing down the search to “just the right” options.
Coursera
In addition to my main job as a journalist, I also volunteer as a teacher and trainer from time to time. In my last gig, I taught English and math to children at an orphanage run by a British nun in a hilly area. The role is rewarding, but finding the right course material isn’t always easy.
It’s not the lack of study material, but the sheer abundance of it that makes it harder to find the highest quality material. Thanks to the Coursera connection within ChatGPT, I was able to shorten my research time and find appropriate courses with a straightforward prompt like this:
“Find free courses for me that focus on teaching science to high school students. Favor options from top universities and those that offer a certificate to learners.” In about a few minutes, ChatGPT pulled course material from prestigious institutions like Duke University, the University of Virginia, and MIT and provided a brief description of the topic material.
Adobe Photoshop
Image generation and editing has become a groundbreaking application scenario for generative AI tools. And for obvious reasons. We click a lot of pictures, some for memories and the rest to post on social media. For the latter, achieving the sophisticated “Instagram” look is very important.
Typically, you either stick with the built-in editor or switch to dedicated editing tools like Photoshop and Snapseed. It’s a time-consuming process, and you won’t always get perfect results, especially if you don’t know the ins and outs of image editing.
This is where conversation editing comes into play. “Increase the bokeh image in this image slightly. Increase the contrast on the jacket. and adjust it to a vertical aspect ratio of 1920 x 1080.” This was my request and ChatGPT delivered a photoshopped result within two minutes.
I’m pretty sure that if I had continued with manual editing, the process would have taken at least ten minutes until I randomly made the changes. With ChatGPT’s Photoshop integration, I got the changes I wanted without any frustrating manual back-and-forth editing.
Overall, the experience of using apps in ChatGPT is extremely rewarding. The only limitation is whether you trust ChatGPT with access to your activity in other apps, especially those that have access to personal data, such as. B. Gmail or a Google Drive folder. I would suggest sticking to tasks where you reveal the least amount of personal information, or pushing apps into ChatGPT, where this can save you a lot of time and effort.
