OpenAI has finally followed through on its promise to bring ChatGPT to Android, which has been on the cards since the company released the iOS version of ChatGPT back in May. The thing is, you can’t have it yet. Unless you live in the US, India, Bangladesh, or Brazil, according to the company’s announcement. The rest of us? We’ll have to wait until OpenAI deems South Africa worthy enough to play around with AI.
You can, however, register your interest in the app on the Google Play Store in the meantime, which allows the app to be automatically installed when the time comes. And if you’re worried about missing it in your app drawer, it’ll send a notification when it’s ready to go. If it wasn’t already obvious, the app is free, just like the iOS version.
ChatGPT, write this article (please?)
If you absolutely cannot wait, Android users can already access ChatGPT through a browser, though the UI isn’t quite as streamlined as an official app will be. According to ZDnet, the app is similar to the iOS version that’s already live, though the Android app “sprinkles in a couple of bonus features just like the iOS flavor.”
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What those are, we can’t be sure until the app gets its official global rollout. We’re guessing it’ll include Google Assistant support, to best mimic the iOS version’s Siri support. There’s a good chance we’ll see Whisper, OpenAI’s own open-source speech recognition system, added to the Android app too.
As for when we’ll get the chance to play with these features ourselves, OpenAI hasn’t said. Judging by the app’s slow rollout to South Africa for iOS back in May, we’re guessing South Africa is at the bottom of the list. Again.