There are multiple ways to use ChatGPT, with mobile apps for iOS and Android, desktop apps for macOS and Windows, and a web app that you can access in a browser. However, not every platform has access to the same set of features. If you mainly stick to using one platform, there may be some features you’re missing out on.
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Custom GPTs (Browser Only)
ChatGPT allows you to create your own custom GPTs to do specific jobs. For example, you could create a custom GPT to help you build PowerPoint presentations, give you creative writing prompts, explain the rules of a complicated board game, or help you improve your coding skills. Creating a custom GPT is fairly easy; you simply explain to ChatGPT what you want the GPT to do, and it will create the GPT for you, which you can refine with further prompts.
There is also a library of GPTs that have been created by other people so that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. You can access this collection of GPTs on all ChatGPT platforms.
If you want to create your own custom GPT, however, then you’ll only be able to do so using ChatGPT in a browser. It’s not possible to build your own GPT on mobile or desktop.
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ChatGPT Tasks (Web App for Full Functionality)
Tasks is a fairly new feature in ChatGPT that signals the first step in ChatGPT’s journey to becoming an agentic AI. Before the release of the Tasks feature, ChatGPT would only ever generate a response immediately after you entered a prompt. With Tasks, however, you can get ChatGPT to produce responses on a schedule, even if you don’t have the app open at the time.
For example, you can ask ChatGPT to give you a weather forecast at 8 am every morning, to create an amusing satirical cartoon every Sunday afternoon, or to remind you to put the garbage out the night before it’s due to be collected. You can create scheduled tasks in any of the ChatGPT platforms just by asking ChatGPT to do a specific task at a set time. ChatGPT will then generate the scheduled task for you.
You can create ChatGPT tasks on any platform, as well as pause them, change the instructions, and reschedule them. However, you can only access the full editing features on the web app. For example, it’s not possible to completely delete a scheduled task by asking ChatGPT on mobile or desktop; you can only delete it in the web app.
This is more important than it sounds. If you ask ChatGPT to delete a scheduled task on mobile or desktop, it won’t delete it, it will simply pause it. The problem with this is that you’re only allowed a maximum of 10 scheduled tasks, and paused tasks count toward that total. Unless you delete a task in the web app, your paused tasks will quickly fill up your slots.
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ChatGPT Projects (Web App for Full Functionality)
Projects is another relatively new feature of ChatGPT . Projects gives you the ability to do something that many people who use ChatGPT regularly have been wanting for some time: the ability to group your chats into folders.
More than that, however, you can also create your own custom instructions for each project, as well as upload files that are accessible by any chats within the project. This effectively allows you to use Projects to create multiple different personalized versions of ChatGPT that you can use for different tasks.
Once you’ve created a project, you can access it from any platform. Initially, it was only possible to create new projects on the web app, but you can now create projects on mobile and desktop, too.
However, there is a significant limitation on these platforms: while you can create a project and add custom instructions, it’s not possible to add files to your Projects on mobile or desktop. The only way you can add files is using the web app. It feels like a strange limitation, as you can upload files to individual chats within a project on mobile and desktop but not to the project as a whole.
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Advanced Voice Features (Mobile App for Full Functionality)
Advanced Voice is one of the features of ChatGPT that still impresses me the most. ChatGPT isn’t just able to respond fast enough that it feels like a natural conversation. It also has incredibly lifelike voice options that use such impressive intonation and rhythm that you can almost believe you’re talking to a real person.
You can even get ChatGPT to change its voice. Before the official ChatGPT Santa voice was released over Christmas, I was able to get a very realistic-sounding Santa by using the British male voice Arbor and then asking it to talk like Santa. The impression was on a par with the official Santa voice.
You can use Advanced Voice to talk to ChatGPT on all platforms, including on desktop and web, but some key features are currently only available on mobile. On mobile, you can upload images, take photos, or share your phone screen and then discuss the images with ChatGPT using voice. For example, you could take a photo of a dying plant and ask for tips on how to bring it back to full health.
Even more impressive is the live video feature on mobile. You can turn on your phone camera and the live feed will appear in the ChatGPT Advanced Voice window. You can then ask ChatGPT about anything that’s visible. For example, you can point your phone at your bookshelf, move the camera along the row of books, and then ask ChatGPT where a specific book is located on the shelf.
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Connecting to Cloud Storage (Web App Only)
ChatGPT’s ability to analyze files and documents can be very useful, but to do so, you need to get the files into ChatGPT first. If you have files in cloud storage, you can download them and then upload them into ChatGPT, and if you’re using ChatGPT on mobile or desktop, this is your only option.
On the web app, however, you have the option to connect to Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive when you click the “+” (plus) icon to add a file to a chat. Once connected, you can browse and select files directly from your cloud storage accounts without needing to download them and reupload them to ChatGPT.
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Work With Apps (macOS Desktop App Only)
This feature is a little different, as it’s something that’s currently only available on the macOS desktop app. The Work with Apps feature allows you to connect compatible Mac apps to ChatGPT so that ChatGPT can directly access the context of those apps.
The simplest example is that you can connect Apple Notes to ChatGPT. You can then ask ChatGPT anything you want about the note that’s currently open in the Notes app, and ChatGPT will be able to access it, without you needing to copy and paste it from one app to the other.
The feature becomes even more useful when you connect code editors and IDEs such as XCode, VS Code, WebStorm, and PyCharm. You can then use ChatGPT to check through or edit your code without endless copying and pasting. You can even connect the Terminal app and get ChatGPT to generate commit messages.
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Taking Screenshots (Desktop App Only)
Another feature that’s currently restricted to desktop is the ability to take screenshots that are then uploaded to ChatGPT. Using the web app, you can only upload files, meaning that you have to take a screenshot first, save it, and then upload it to ChatGPT. The same is true on mobile.
On desktop, however, you can take a screenshot directly from within the app. Not only can you capture full screenshots of the entire screen, but you can also select a currently open app, which will screenshot only the contents of that app, even if it’s not the app currently in focus.
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Drag and Drop (iPad Only)
This one is possibly the most niche feature of all, because it’s currently only available in the ChatGPT iOS app on an iPad. On an iPad, you can tap and hold a response from ChatGPT, and drag it out of the ChatGPT app and into another app.
If you’re using your iPad in Split View, for example, you can quickly and easily drag responses from the ChatGPT app into Notes, into an email, or into a Word document. You can do the same on other platforms by copying and pasting, but the drag-and-drop feature is for some reason exclusive to the iPad app.
You can use ChatGPT on mobile, desktop, or in a browser. However, if you only stick to using one platform, you may be unaware of some of the features that are found on the others.
It can be a little frustrating that you’re not able to achieve everything you want to do within a specific app. Not being able to delete scheduled tasks except on the web app is far from ideal, especially when you’re not able to add any new scheduled tasks until you’ve deleted some. Hopefully, some of these features will find their way onto other platforms in the future.
