On December 19, OpenAI officially announced on the tenth day of its 12-day release event that to make AI more widespread globally and further expand the coverage of its flagship product, users can interact with ChatGPT without an account via phone or WhatsApp messages.
In the US, users can call 1-800-CHATGPT (1-800-242-8478) to access OpenAI's real-time conversational feature - the advanced voice mode, and talk to the popular chatbot for free for 15 minutes per month; users in other countries can send messages to the same number on WhatsApp to interact with the chatbot. Currently, ChatGPT has reached 300 million weekly active users.
Starting from December 5 local time, OpenAI has launched an intensive new feature release cycle, planning to roll out new products and features through 12 live streaming events in the next 12 days. Prior to this, OpenAI has already released a series of innovations, including the ChatGPT Pro program, reinforcement fine-tuning technology, Sora, the interactive interface Canvas, advanced audio-visual capabilities, Projects feature, ChatGPT search, the full-powered o1 model, and opening its large-scale o1 model series to third-party developers through its API.
OpenAI positions this feature as an important stepping stone for new entrants in the field of artificial intelligence. Compared to the web version of ChatGPT, the new service provides a more simplified version and allows users to access it through familiar channels in a "low-cost" way. OpenAI suggests that for existing users seeking more comprehensive functionality, higher usage limits, and more personalization options, they should continue to use their standard ChatGPT accounts through the traditional way.
1. First Integration with IM App
Users can interact with ChatGPT through WhatsApp regardless of their location. The chatbot can answer user questions and perform tasks such as language translation, topic explanation, and direction guidance. Global users can now add 1-800-CHATGPT (1-800-242-8478) as a contact on WhatsApp and enjoy a seamless conversational experience with the AI. This is the first time OpenAI has integrated ChatGPT into the WhatsApp platform, and the service is completely free for users. This innovative feature allows users to interact with ChatGPT as naturally as with a real person, regardless of whether they have sufficient data traffic.
As a global instant messaging app with a huge user base, WhatsApp currently has over 2.7 billion active users, and the number is expected to exceed 3 billion next year. For OpenAI, WhatsApp is not only an important access point, but also a key promotion platform, especially in the context of the increasing prevalence of Meta's AI technology. It's worth noting that the ChatGPT service on WhatsApp does not provide the customization options available in the official app. Similar to the phone service, users do not need an account to use ChatGPT on WhatsApp, but there are daily usage limits. When approaching the limit, users will receive a notification and can continue the conversation by downloading the ChatGPT app or chatting on the desktop.
It's worth mentioning that Google had previously launched a similar service called GOOG-411 in 2007, which provided a free voice query service. However, the service was terminated by Google in 2010 without a clear reason. The general speculation is that Google might have already achieved its potential purpose: collecting enough voice samples to further develop its speech recognition technology.
2. How the New Feature Works
In regions where it is difficult to obtain stable and high-speed internet connectivity due to high costs or insufficient infrastructure, people tend to use applications like WhatsApp, as they can provide data services without relying on continuous network connections. Through WhatsApp, these users can now interact with ChatGPT as naturally as with a real person, while avoiding the potential network burden of the traditional ChatGPT application. The service uses the same GPT-4o-mini model as the free version of ChatGPT.
The phone number 1-800-CHATGPT (1-800-242-8478) is built based on OpenAI's real-time API, while the WhatsApp feature is integrated with the WhatsApp API and supported by the GPT-4o-mini model. This design allows users to enjoy the convenience of conversing with AI even in limited data connections.
OpenAI gives examples of how this technology can assist users in "creative writing or brainstorming, providing suggestions (e.g., recipes, travel inspiration, etc.), or discussing topics such as news, hobbies, and daily trivia." OpenAI explicitly states that this is an experimental release and that they may implement rate limits and adjust service availability based on demand. "For those seeking a more complete experience, more tools, higher usage limits, and personalization options, we recommend continuing to use ChatGPT directly through their accounts," the company added.
3. Expanding the User Base
OpenAI has recently hired its first Chief Marketing Officer, indicating the company's plan to increase advertising spending to expand its user base. In October, OpenAI introduced a search feature in ChatGPT, allowing it to better compete with Google, Microsoft's Bing, and Perplexity. This is all part of OpenAI's aggressive growth plan, as the company is competing in the rapidly expanding generative AI market with Anthropic supported by Amazon, Elon Musk's xAI, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon, which is expected to generate over $1 trillion in revenue in the next decade.
OpenAI completed its latest funding round in October, with a valuation of $157 billion. The company also secured a $4 billion revolving credit facility, giving it a total liquidity of over $10 billion.
"OpenAI's mission is to ensure that general artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity, and part of that is making it accessible to as many people as possible," said Kevin Weil, OpenAI's Chief Product Officer, during the live event. "Today, we're taking the next step in bringing ChatGPT to your phone." This experience is similar to OpenAI's real-time conversational feature - the advanced voice mode for ChatGPT, but without the multimodal interaction. ChatGPT can respond to user questions over the phone and handle tasks such as translating sentences into different languages.
OpenAI also revealed that they are developing new features for the WhatsApp integration, including image analysis and web search, but have not yet announced a timeline for the release of these new features. "This project originated from a hackathon," Weil mentioned. "The team started building it just a few weeks ago, and we're really pleased with the outcome. They worked incredibly hard to get it out. Now that it's live, we're really excited. We're committed to making ChatGPT as widely accessible as possible."
This article is from the WeChat public account "Tencent Technology", translated by Wuji, and published with authorization by 36Kr.
