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A free guide by Mariah Brunner ↗ INSTAGRAM ↗ TIKTOK

ChatGPT Can Now
Read Your Texts

The setup, the one prompt that turns your messages into a reply list, a to-do list and a calendar check, and the six searches worth saving.

OpenAI added an Apple Messages plugin, and once it is on, ChatGPT can search every text you have ever sent or received, catch you up on a conversation, draft replies, and send them once you approve.

Most of the coverage is about having it write your texts, which is honestly the least interesting thing it does. The real unlock is that years of messages become searchable by meaning instead of by scrolling.

Turn It On

Check this first, or you will waste ten minutes. It runs in the ChatGPT desktop app on Apple Silicon Macs, meaning M1 and newer. It does not work on Intel Macs, on the web, on your phone, or in the Codex CLI. It is also off until you switch it on.

1. Open the ChatGPT desktop app on your Mac and go into Work or Codex.

2. Open Plugins, look under Public, find Apple Messages and install it.

3. Approve the Mac permissions it asks for. It needs Full Disk Access so it can read the messages database, access to your contacts so names mean something instead of phone numbers, and permission to control the Messages app so it can actually send.

4. Type @Messages at the start of any prompt to pull it in.

What it can actually see. It covers iMessage, SMS and RCS, so green bubbles work too. It reads your conversations and can send through the Messages app. It does not read anything from WhatsApp, Instagram or Signal.

The Monday Morning Prompt

This is the one worth saving. It reads a week of messages and hands back three lists: everyone waiting on you with a draft reply already written, everything you promised somebody and forgot, and every date anyone mentioned that is still coming up.

The second list is the one that gets people. Nobody remembers the "yeah I'll send that over" they typed nine days ago.

Text Triage: reply list, to-do list, calendar check
Use @Messages. Go through everything from the last 7 days across all my conversations, then give me exactly three lists and nothing else. **1. REPLY LIST** Every person who is waiting on a response from me. For each one: - Their name - What they actually asked, in one line - How long it has been sitting - A draft reply I can approve, written in the voice I already use with that person (match how I text them, not how I write emails) Sort by how long they have been waiting, longest first. Skip anything that clearly does not need a reply. **2. TO-DO LIST** Everything I committed to in a text and have not obviously done. Look for "I'll send you", "I'll book", "let me check", "I'll get back to you", "yes I can", "remind me to". For each one: - What I promised - Who I promised it to - When I said it Flag anything over a week old as overdue. **3. CALENDAR CHECK** Every date, time, plan, or event mentioned that is still upcoming. For each one: - What it is - The date and time as stated - Who it involves - Whether it was actually confirmed or is still loose Put anything happening in the next 48 hours at the top and mark it URGENT. Rules: - Do not send anything. Draft only. - If a date or detail is ambiguous, say so instead of guessing. - Ignore promotional messages, delivery notifications, and 2FA codes entirely. - If a list is empty, say it is empty. Do not invent entries to fill it.
Six Searches Worth Keeping

These are the ones I would actually use. Copy the whole block and keep it somewhere, then swap the names.

Message search prompts
# Find something you know somebody sent you Use @Messages. Find the address my mom sent me for the wedding. Give me the exact text she sent and the date. Use @Messages. Someone recommended a restaurant to me around June. Find it, tell me who recommended it and exactly what they said about it. Use @Messages. Find every link anyone has sent me in the last month that I never opened or replied to. Group them by who sent them. # Catch up before you see someone Use @Messages. Catch me up on my conversation with Sarah since July. What has been going on with her, what did I say I would do, and what should I definitely ask about when I see her. Keep it under ten lines. # Untangle a group chat Use @Messages. Read the group chat about our trip. Tell me three things: what everyone has actually agreed on, what is still undecided, and anything I specifically said I would handle. Do not summarize the conversation, just give me the decisions. # Find who you are ghosting Use @Messages. Show me everyone who texted me in the last two weeks that I never replied to. Skip anything promotional. For each one, tell me if it looks like it still needs an answer. # Turn a thread into a decision Use @Messages. Read my conversation with [name] about [topic]. Lay out what they want, what I have offered, and where we actually disagree. Then give me the one question I should ask to move it forward.
The Setting To Leave Alone

By default ChatGPT shows you the message and the recipient and waits for you to approve before anything sends. At some point it will offer to always allow sending to a particular chat, which turns that approval off for that person.

Say no. Your inbox is text other people wrote, which means anyone who messages you could put instructions inside a message aimed at the assistant. OpenAI's own documentation says to keep per-send approval on for conversations that might contain untrusted or misleading instructions. Approving each message takes a second and it is the only thing standing between a weird text and something going out under your name.

One more practical note. If you have a task set to full access, or you have otherwise turned approval prompts off, the plugin can end up unable to show you the confirmation it needs, so the message just never sends. If a text seems to vanish, that is usually why.

If you are setting ChatGPT up properly, this walks through the rest of it.