OpenAI Adds iCloud Calendar and Mail Plugins and Dot Texting

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OpenAI continues to add features to its ChatGPT app on a regular basis, but there are a couple of recent Apple-specific updates worth mentioning.

First, OpenAI created plugins for Calendar and Mail a couple of days ago. Both features use iCloud and require you to set up an app-specific password to use them. Here’s what OpenAI’s in-app documentation says each does:

  • iCloud Calendar: List iCloud calendars, find events, create or change events, and look up iCloud contacts.
  • iCloud Mail: Search and read iCloud Mail, manage messages and drafts, send email, and look up iCloud contacts.

I’ve been using Google Calendar more the past several months primarily because there was too much friction in getting Codex or my Dot to use my iCloud calendars. I’ve never been fond of Google Calendar, so I set up the iCloud Calendar plugin immediately. I don’t use Apple Mail as often, but it’s come a long way with the latest OS updates, so I set up the iCloud Mail plugin too and plan to give it another go.

Setting up your Dot in Messages.

Second, you can now text your OpenAI Dot. The setup process is very simple, which anyone who tried to set up Messages with OpenClaw in the early days will appreciate. Go to your iPhone, tap your Dot, select “Set up texting,” add your phone number, paste in the verification code it sends, and you’re all set. It took me less than a minute to do. Your Dot will even send you a contact card to add to the Contacts app, so its profile picture shows up in Messages.

You may be wondering why you’d set up texting when you have the ChatGPT app and a widget that tie directly into your Dot. It’s a fair point, but for me, the more ways I have to easily make requests of my Dot, the better, and texting gives me a low-friction way to do that that takes next to no bandwidth, ensuring that it will work whether I’ve got a strong cellular signal or not. It’s worth noting that although your Dot is assigned a phone number for texting purposes, the number can’t be used to start a voice chat, which I tried of course.