OpenAI’s latest features take direct aim at the app store model
TechCrunch Sarah Perez ● Covered by 3 sources
OpenAI is trying to make ChatGPT the place apps get found and used. That’s a direct shot at the app store model, without the billing piece yet.
Based on reporting by TechCrunch, Sarah Perez — read the original for the full story.
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OpenAI spent Dev Day talking about agents, new models, and a bunch of product pieces. Put them together, though, and the target looks bigger: the company wants ChatGPT to become the front door for software discovery, launching, and everyday use.
The pitch is simple enough. ChatGPT, which OpenAI says has 1.2 billion weekly users, will start suggesting apps inside conversations when it thinks they can help finish a task. A user can then connect that app and keep going without leaving the chat. OpenAI is also expanding its plugin setup with extensions, so developers can build interactive panels that live inside the conversation instead of sending people off to a separate site or app.
That matters because it changes where the action happens. Instead of opening a web app, a mobile app, or a desktop app first, users can stay in ChatGPT while using tools from companies like Figma and Adobe. OpenAI also showed its own meeting app inside ChatGPT, where the system pulled calendar items, offered to take notes, and then handed back follow-up items after the meeting.
The other half of the plan is identity and portability. “Sign in with ChatGPT” is meant to let people carry their AI allowance into third-party apps, and OpenAI says it has 16 launch partners for that effort, including Cognition’s Devin, Notion, Vercel, T3, OpenClaw, and Dactyl. On the business side, OpenAI is also setting up an enterprise app marketplace with more than 30 partners at launch, among them Adobe, Figma, Salesforce, ServiceNow, HubSpot, CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, and others.
Developers, meanwhile, get a less painful review process for plugins: they can track submissions, see what needs fixing, request a human review, and update tools without restarting from scratch. And for OpenAI, that all adds up to a distribution layer that looks a lot like an app store without the store part. The company did not announce a billing system or revenue-sharing plan to match the old model, which is the missing piece that usually pays for all the ceremony.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
OpenAI is doing the classic platform move: build the doorway, then politely ask everyone else to stand inside it. The missing billing and revenue-sharing layer is not a footnote; it’s the bit that tells you whether this is a new ecosystem or just a nicer lobby. For now, it smells less like liberation and more like a different landlord.
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