Starting December 17, 2025, OpenAI has officially opened submissions of ChatGPT apps for review. Developers can submit an application for moderation, and if it passes, it appears in the App Directory — a catalog built directly into the ChatGPT interface that allows users to discover apps from within the chat itself.

It is important to catch the nuance: this is not “just another storefront,” but a shift in the very model of software consumption. ChatGPT is gradually becoming a place where users no longer navigate websites and menus, but simply express intent in natural language — and activate the required tool in a single step. In its announcement, OpenAI explicitly describes the mechanics: the directory is accessible from the tools menu; apps can be launched via @-mentions and, in experimental mode, even suggested directly based on the conversation context.

What exactly counts as an “app” in ChatGPT

OpenAI has clarified the terminology. What previously existed under the logic of “connectors” is now unified under the umbrella term apps — including applications with interactive chat-native interfaces as well as connectors to external data sources and services.

Technically, this layer is built on the Apps SDK (currently in beta), which is based on the Model Context Protocol (MCP) — a standard for connecting ChatGPT to external tools and data. The idea is straightforward: you design not only the invocation logic, but also a chat-native interaction interface.

Why this matters even if you’re not a developer

In 2023–2024, we became accustomed to the model of “chat as a universal search and assistant.” By the end of 2025, something else is emerging: chat as an action marketplace. Not “read and summarize,” but “connect, pull context, perform an action in a service.” This is the transformation of ChatGPT into a platform — what many media outlets already describe as an “app store inside ChatGPT.”

A telling detail: OpenAI explicitly emphasizes that strong apps should be narrowly focused, easy to understand in a chat context, and deliver clear value — either completing a real workflow that starts with a conversation, or creating a genuinely AI-native experience.

How it works for developers: review, directory, publishing

The mechanics are now fully “platform-like.” You build an app using the Apps SDK, submit it for review via the OpenAI Platform Dashboard, track its status there, and after approval, explicitly click Publish to make it visible in the directory.

There are several important real-world requirements that signal OpenAI’s intent to prioritize safety and governability over chaos. Submissions must come from verified developers or organizations; the submitter must have the Owner role; the app must expose a publicly accessible MCP server and have a correctly configured Content Security Policy (CSP); the review process includes both automated and manual checks.

A small but important note for Europe: in the current version of the documentation, OpenAI states that projects with EU data residency cannot yet submit apps for review and must use a project with global data residency.

One more editorially important marker: OpenAI notes that the first approved apps will be rolled out gradually starting in the new year — meaning the platform is officially entering a “live directory” mode that will fill up quickly.

What this changes right now

For whom	What changes	Why it matters
Users	A habit emerges of “searching for actions” in chat rather than websites in a browser	The dialogue becomes the entry point to services and data
Developers	A new distribution channel: a directory inside ChatGPT plus deep links to app pages	Users are brought directly into the experience, not to a landing page
Business	Trust becomes decisive: transparent permissions, data minimization, privacy policy	Embedded apps always have access to context; trust becomes a product

How FUTURUM will cover this

We will track two lines. First: which apps actually “take root” — not by press releases, but by real usage scenarios. Second: which rules and constraints shape the market — review practices, privacy requirements, regional availability, the emergence of payment protocols, and future monetization.

In essence, a new genre is being born before our eyes: chat-native products — not websites, not mobile apps, but services that live inside the conversation.