ChatGPT Now Works With iCloud Mail and Calendar

OpenAI has added support for Apple's email and calendar services to ChatGPT. With the new iCloud Mail and iCloud Calendar connectors, the AI assistant can now work with iCloud accounts in the same way it already does with Gmail and Google Calendar.

Once the connectors are enabled, users can ask ChatGPT with a simple prompt to find a specific email, skim the inbox and summarize it, check what is coming up on their schedule, or update a calendar event. OpenAI's announcement also describes the connectors as "highly requested."

Setup and who can use it

To use the connectors, users need to sign in with their Apple account and create an app-specific password. An app-specific password is generally understood to be a separate password that grants access without sharing the main Apple account password with a third-party app. According to the company, once these steps are complete, ChatGPT works with both services on desktop, the web and iOS.

Support is not limited to paying subscribers. The connectors are available on all ChatGPT plans, including free accounts. For subscribers to the Pro plan, OpenAI's AI agent can also use both connectors.

How it differs from the macOS integration

The connectors work differently from ChatGPT's ability to interact directly with Apple's Mail and Calendar apps on macOS. Those apps can also display inboxes and calendars from third-party services such as Outlook or Gmail. The iCloud connectors, by contrast, give ChatGPT access only to email and calendar events tied to Apple's own services.

That means the connectors offer little practical value to anyone who does not use iCloud. They are aimed at people who manage their email and calendar through an Apple account. Put another way, even if an Outlook or Gmail account shows up in Apple's apps, it falls outside the scope of the new connectors.

A complicated relationship between OpenAI and Apple

The move also illustrates how tangled the relationship between the two companies has become. ChatGPT was the first AI assistant to be integrated directly into Siri. But Apple's decision to work with Google rather than OpenAI to renew its AI models was seen as the first sign that the relationship had soured, and a lawsuit Apple filed in July alleging that OpenAI employees stole trade secrets reinforced that impression.

Even so, the Creator Studio updates announced alongside the new M6 iMac and MacBook Pro bring a new chatbot experience, partly powered by OpenAI models, to Pages, Numbers and Keynote. It appears that neither company wants, or is able, to cut ties with the other entirely.