It really is a mess. An hour or so ago, the download for macOS was called ChatGPT.dmg. However the app in there was still called Codex. But it installed ChatGPT.

But it seems to be fixed now.

Also, subtitling Work with "For getting work done" and Codex with "For developers" is a bit aggressive towards developers ;)

Ha! Feeling very attacked.

Seems like they've changed it again already.

Stands for damage

>Also, when you toggle btween ChatGPT Work and ChatGPT Codex, nothing changes. This is super confusing.

This is the weirdest thing. It's completely unclear even if I was using the app for "work" rather than "coding" why I wouldn't just use the "Codex" option. Why even bother toggling? Can Codex actually not do any of the things in "Work"?

The old ChatGPT is now ChatGPT Classic. Codex is now ChatGPT.

There is a funny interaction in the Microsoft store, where ChatGPT turns into Codex when you click on it: https://f003.backblazeb2.com/file/sharexxx/ShareX/2026/07/Ap...

(Also GG @ MSFT for opening a nag about Windows Hello twice while I wanted to stop the recording.)

The best of Microsoft's naming schemes, now coming to your LLM chatbot.

I had a similar effect on macOS.

I have updated Codex and it's now ChatGPT. And the chat in Codex is badly broken and doesn't support the one feature I use in almost every chat.

Good job.

>And the chat in Codex is badly broken and doesn't support the one feature I use in almost every chat.

what is badly broken about it, and what feature does it not support? im a pretty casual user, so i guess i havent noticed this bad breakage.

Everything. The current implementation is unusable. If you see differently then probably you are looking at Codex chats, not chats.

whether i use the new "chat" button that just appeared after the update, or use the familiar chat underneath the "projects" heading, everything appears to be working just fine. (i am using "ChatGPT Work" not "ChatGPT Codex")

is there a 3rd chats somewhere that i am missing?

which feature?

Temporary chats.

Well, at least for me, they are not broken. They are gone.

Sad, I liked that ChatGPT had a native app on macOS. I don’t understand why OpenAI and Anthropic have to rely on vending universal apps when their whole MO is code being dirt cheap.

Same. I don't see why they thought this was a good move.

maybe they asked chatgpt about it :)

You’re absolutely right and your solution is actually a better implementation.

Haha. I love the Claude speak.

I asked ChatGPT about this change and my version, with knowledge of how it and I work together, certainly prefers the old one.

AppKit and SwiftUI and WinUI are all meh for rendering lots of text. Chromium is quite good at it.

Plus they have lots of embedded web content these days and managing webviews is a relative pain vs it all being one webview

Why is a browser tool better at rendering text than native?

Because web sites have always been about rendering huge scrollable amounts of text and images

Because there is more competition to render sites in a pleasing way, switching cost is lower. The operating systems have a high switching cost, very few people will learn a new OS because the text is a little fuzzy.

It's fairly simple sans-serif text with some markdown formatting, eh?

Yea but rendering a book’s worth of that, with text selection and embedded web content, is not trivial with the native UI frameworks like it is with web UI.

I look forward to John Gruber’s screed on this given his recent rampages against Electron apps, and his preference for OpenAIs native macOS app (relative to Claude).

Technically I think it uses something called OpenAI OWL not Electron https://openai.com/index/building-chatgpt-atlas/ (which they extracted from Atlas, but the new app mentions it in the about window)

it's just Yet Another Chromium, like everything else.

It's less a screed and more of a reasoned argument, in this case. The Claude app is ass, as are most electron apps compared to native.

Don’t disagree, but screed funnier. Plus it still fits, as the dictionary definition is “lengthy, often ranted” — which doesn’t preclude reasoned.

> Also, when you toggle btween ChatGPT Work and ChatGPT Codex, nothing changes. This is super confusing.

By the way, it seems ChatGPT is confused as well:

https://imgur.com/a/O1Aj6jz

Over my long career, this may take the cake when it comes to all time software turds. This reeks of desperation.

> I just installed this. I am very confused. I no longer have a Codex app on my computer. ChatGPT is now Codex.

I ... hope we have an option for opting out of this? Otherwise I'm back on T3 Code.

Seems the old ChatGPT is still on computer but renamed ChatGPT Classic (no longer downloadable), so clearly being deprecated. But just don't understand how the whole CHATGPT Chat History Chat feature is essentially gone other than seeing at the past 3 or 4 in a tiny popup window. Glad everyone is as confused as I am, so hopefully an announcement from ChatGPT clarifying all this.

The only difference I can see is that the controls for local/remote, branch, and worktrees disappear, and instead it shows office suite plugins. I would presume it affects the system prompt in the background?

Very confusing. But I do find it potentially interesting to treat general office work no differently from coding, which is something I had already been using Codex for in many ways before today

On Windows, ChatGPT is now known as ChatGPT Classic, and Codex is now known as ChatGPT (Beta).

I see they are fully embracing the Microsoft model, soon we'll have ChatGPT Classic, ChatGPT (Beta), and ChatGPT (New)

I just downloaded the new dmg and it's the old chatGPT. Maybe they are listening?

I think the idea is that there should be no difference between 'casual chat' and 'serious chat'. why not chat in codex

Going to repost my comment from below:

Codex creates a new folder in `~/Documents` in iCloud drive/OneDrive for every single thread you make. Furthermore, these threads are also polluted with your global AGENTS.md file, as well as all other developer_instructions that are injected by the harness.

I want my chats isolated from work contexts.

Reading your observation only reinforces my convictions to never use these tools outside of a containerized environment.

Does codex not have a pre prompt about being a coding agent like claude code does?

I think coding models and harness are good/better at general questions and simple problems. something about coding being general format to think.

Lol what a shit show. It was fine the way it was. Why'd you break it, OpenAI? What product manager talked you into thinking this was a good idea? Don't they have access to ChatGPT to talk them out of it? Of course, I'm a random on the Internet who doesn't get it, but what a dumb move. ASI can't come fast enough.

> ASI can't come fast enough.

ASI is a myth used by these companies to justify their pursuit of regulatory capture.

It’s all ChatGPT under the hood. Even though it says Work or Codex or whatever you can just ask it whatever you want, and it will work.

> Even though it says Work or Codex or whatever you can just ask it whatever you want, and it will work.

No it's not. Codex creates a new folder in `~/Documents` in iCloud drive/OneDrive for every single thread you make. Furthermore, these threads are also polluted with your global AGENTS.md file, as well as all other developer_instructions that are injected by the harness.

I want my chat isolated from work contexts.

So, ChatGPT.com?

What functionality are you seeking from a native app “for chatting”?

So will the new ChatGPT (Codex) refuse to respond at all after the 5-hour quota or weekly quota is used up? It always felt that 5.5 on the website was a lot more generous than the Codex version. And at least the website/old app could downgrade you to a lower model if you used up that quota.

So let me get this straight:

1) If you have the Codex desktop app installed, and you update from within the app, it replaces itself with the new chat-demoted-to-an-overlay app called "ChatGPT" and renames your existing ChatGPT app to "ChatGPT Classic."

2) If you get the new ChatGPT app and replace your current app with it, you don't get a "Classic" app and there's no way to download it.

3) They really named an app "Classic." Naming your app Classic is putting a bright red sign on it that says "this app will be abandoned soon." They might as well have called it "ChatGPT Sunset."

If this is all true, that is certainly...one way to do product management.

I guess the smarter ai gets the dumber we have to be to compensate

Nobody in product development saw the need to leave behind a "Classic" version as a clue that this new bloated abomination is subpar?

Sounds kind of ominous.

I was just about to pull the trigger, and upgrade my sub, but maybe I'm better off, moving over to Claude, even though it means rebuilding my history.

Chat is there... it's just can't be in a full-screen anymore.

Not allowing full screen is the most insane thing for a “chat app ported from the web”… the browser probably has a better experience now…

Always was better IMO. I just pinned the browser app as a desktop app and have been using it that way for many months. Works great.

The best way to access ChatGPT "chat" was always on ChatGPT.com via a web browser, not even the iOS app seems to have all the little things you can do on the web version.

The Mac desktop ChatGPT app had weird issues like not being able to see the model being used by a chat inside a project etc. I just ended up installing ChatGPT Atlas and using that as an AI-only browser for all LLMs including Claude and Grok lol

You can detach a specific chat window and make it any size you want.

Presumably there are some features in the old app that will be migrated to the new app or dropped. Seems fine.

Lol, this has Google energy.

when the middle management ghouls demand that the codex and chat teams synergize at the expense of the architecture and users. lol

I've been wary since they killed Sora

the dmg for chatgpt used to have the bundleID of com.openai.chatgpt, now the ChatGPT bundlID is com.openai.codex.

the website for downloading the new chatGPT ( https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/app ) has a big download button in the middle of the page that links to "https://persistent.oaistatic.com/codex-app-prod/Codex.dmg"

wtaf OpenAI... pick a freaking lane! what did you vibe code this ?

Great news! HBO Max is now Max!

and my codex is gone and I don't find new chatgpt

I feel like the web is under attack. They want chatgpt in desktop app so they can start moving people away from chatgpt via web. Web being suspectible to automation is driving everything into locked down apps. The very toxic reddit.com a prime example of this -- forbidding mobile web access behind a timed wall.

Yes, the side effect has been me using Reddit via Incognito, which means I don’t see it every time I open iOS Chrome, and also I’m not signed in, so after 14 years I’ve basically stopped using it.

I guess with their IPO “the line must go up”. Very stupid, dark pattern.