OpenAI recently launched its official ChatGPT app for Mac (before Windows). The macOS app brings most of the features of the iPhone version to the desktop – no web browser needed.
Option + Space
Hands down, the best feature of the Mac app is instant access to ChatGPT from anywhere with a simple keyboard shortcut. Option + Space is the default, or you can assign your own. Before ChatGPT came to Mac, I kept a Safari tab pinned to the OpenAI website. Since spending the majority of my work week on a Mac, my use of ChatGPT has increased from a few times per day to dozens of times throughout the day.
Shortcuts
Anyway, I realized today that the same shortcuts supported by ChatGPT on iOS also work with ChatGPT on macOS! In my case they synced and just worked. You can also configure them from shortcuts on Mac. (Create a new shortcut, select ChatGPT from Apps and add the action you want to assign.)
ChatGPT offers two shortcuts: Ask ChatGPTAnd Start a voice chat with ChatGPT.
Using the iPhone, I used Ask ChatGPT as lock screen launcher and occasionally assigned Start a voice chat with ChatGPT to the Action button on my iPhone 15 Pro Max. (I mainly use the Action button to launch the camera. It can get annoying when I forget I changed it, go to take a photo and ChatGPT opens a voice chat…)
Voice ChatGPT
The system-wide keyboard shortcut meets my need to Ask ChatGPT. I’m sure more savvy users of shortcuts could concoct useful versions of them. It’s the Start a voice chat with ChatGPT action which I think has potential on Mac.
The only tweak I needed for the Mac is to include it in the menu bar folder and assign Control + Space as the keyboard shortcut to perform the action. You can also add an icon to the Dock to start a voice chat. The shortcut works even when the ChatGPT Mac app is closed.
Voice Assistant Assistant
People are already using ChatGPT voice on iOS to create a generative AI version of Siri. Having this same capability on Mac also improves voice assistant functionality on the desktop. I’ll have to spend more time on this before determining whether using ChatGPT voice on Mac is a good solution, but I think it has potential.
Of course, Siri herself will hopefully learn a thing or two with the help of OpenAI in iOS 18 and macOS 15. We’ll find out for sure on June 10 when Apple reveals its next software improvements.
Oh, and finally, there is another way to use ChatGPT and shortcuts. It turns out that ChatGPT is pretty good at giving you step-by-step instructions on how to create a shortcut based on what you’re trying to do. Now imagine a world where Siri and the Shortcuts app itself use generative AI to integrate this type of functionality directly and with increased access to the system.
Note that OpenAI is still rolling out its Mac app to all users.
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