ChatGPT's Mac App Now Watches What You Do on Your Computer

Key points

• OpenAI has added a feature called Computer History to the ChatGPT desktop app for macOS.
• The feature is opt-in, meaning it does nothing until you choose to turn it on.
• Computer History tracks your activity as "events" rather than screenshots, separating it from Microsoft's similar but controversial Windows Recall feature.
• Users can exclude specific apps and websites, delete individual entries, and activity in private or incognito browser tabs is ignored automatically.
• ChatGPT and Codex, OpenAI's coding assistant, can both search the resulting timeline when answering your questions.

Imagine asking your computer, "What was that document I was editing Tuesday morning?" and getting a straight answer. That is the basic pitch behind Computer History, a new feature OpenAI rolled out this week for the ChatGPT desktop app on macOS.

The idea is simple. Switch the feature on, and the app quietly logs what you do across your Mac: which documents you open, which apps you use, how you spend your time. That log becomes a searchable timeline. Ask ChatGPT a question later, and it can pull from that history to give you a more useful answer.

In a demo video, Dominik Kundel from OpenAI's Developer Experiences team showed the app tracking down his most recently edited document, checking whether he had shared it via Slack, and summarising how his morning looked. Practical stuff, if you are the kind of person who loses track of half-finished work.

How is this different from Windows Recall?

Microsoft's Windows Recall, announced in 2024, does something similar but works by taking constant screenshots of your screen. That approach caused a privacy storm: security researchers pointed out that the screenshots could expose passwords, private messages, and sensitive documents.

OpenAI says Computer History works differently. Rather than capturing images, video, or audio, it records "events", structured notes about what action happened and when, without snapping a picture of the screen itself. Whether that meaningfully reduces the privacy risk is a question worth asking, but it is a deliberate design choice.

Ari Weinstein, a product and engineering manager at OpenAI, confirmed on X that the feature automatically skips any activity happening inside a private or incognito browser tab.

Should you turn it on?

That depends on how comfortable you are sharing your work habits with OpenAI's servers. The feature is opt-in, so nothing happens by default. You stay in control.

If you do try it, you can block specific apps or websites from being logged, which is useful if you want to keep, say, your banking app or a health portal out of the picture. You can also delete individual entries from the timeline after the fact.

First reported by The Verge AI, the feature sits at the sharper end of what AI assistants are starting to do: not just answering questions you type, but learning the shape of your day.

For most people, the honest advice is to read OpenAI's own explanation of what data is stored and where before switching it on. The convenience is real. So is the trade-off.

Common questions

Does Computer History record my screen like Windows Recall does?

No. OpenAI says it logs "events", structured records of your activity, rather than screenshots, images, video, or audio.

Will it track what I do in a private browser tab?

No. OpenAI confirmed that activity inside incognito or private browser tabs is automatically excluded from Computer History.

Can I control which apps it watches?

Yes. You can exclude specific apps and websites from logging, and you can delete individual entries from your timeline at any time.