- OpenAI recently updated ChatGPT so it can search the internet
- This feature has now been added to Apple’s Shortcuts app
- It unlocks new superpowers for your iPhone automations
At the WWDC 2024 conference in June, Apple told us it would be integrating ChatGPT into its own Apple Intelligence system to bring powerful artificial intelligence (AI) to Apple devices. What you might not know is that ChatGPT’s brand-new search feature is also working its way into one of Apple’s best apps, bringing even more capable automation to the iPhone and iPad.
As spotted by MacRumors, Apple’s Shortcuts app includes a new “Open SearchGPT” option nestled among its other ChatGPT commands. This means you can use ChatGPT’s search capabilities to find relevant information online with just a few taps.
OpenAI enabled ChatGPT to search the web in late October, saying that this addition worked “in a much better way” than the chatbot’s previous lookup abilities. It can include links to relevant web searches, add useful context to your results, and it works with follow-up questions to supplement your results with more information.
Apple’s Shortcuts app, meanwhile, lets you create multi-step automations that can carry out a wide range of tasks for you, which can potentially save you a lot of time and effort if the actions are tedious to perform manually.
Shortcuts can also be activated automatically at specified times of day or when you arrive at certain locations. Combine that with ChatGPT’s new ability to search the internet and you could create some very potent workflows – and change the way you search on your iPhone entirely.
Coming to free users soon
Right now, you’ll need a paid-for ChatGPT Plus or ChatGPT Teams subscription in order to use SearchGPT.
That won’t be the case forever, though, as OpenAI says it plans to extend the feature to free users “over the coming months.” Note that you’ll also need to have downloaded the latest version of the ChatGPT app on your iPhone or iPad in order to get the SearchGPT function in Shortcuts.
You might be wondering where Siri figures in all this, since Apple announced at WWDC that Siri would be able to tap into ChatGPT if needed. Well, the iOS 18.2 beta lets Siri hand off to ChatGPT in certain situations – for instance, if you start your Siri request with the phrase “Ask ChatGPT,” you’ll go straight through to OpenAI’s chatbot.
However, iOS 18.2 isn’t expected to launch to the general public until early December. If you don’t want to wait that long to get ChatGPT built into your iOS experience, SearchGPT’s Shortcuts integration might be your best bet.