OpenAI Expands ChatGPT Plugins With App-Like Interfaces and Automations at Dev Day Presentation

During its Dev Day presentation on Tuesday, OpenAI announced an expansion of ChatGPT’s plugins, introducing app-like interfaces and automation capabilities. The new plugin extensions provide applications with a dedicated home in the ChatGPT sidebar alongside existing integrations for tools like Slack, SharePoint, Airtable, and Google Drive. Developers can now build interactive panels and file viewers supporting custom file formats for users to interact with while chatting.

To facilitate development, OpenAI introduced a Plugin Creator tool and a redesigned submission flow for the plugin directory, alongside improved ranking and recommendation systems. Users can individually approve plugin access needs. Furthermore, lightweight ChatGPT Sites can host these plugins to allow sharing with colleagues. OpenAI also added support for the proposed Model Context Protocol (MCP) Events specification to enable plugins to trigger automations based on connected app events, while also simplifying how automations are added and managed.