OpenAI Adds App-Like Interfaces to ChatGPT Plugins, Plans Event Triggers

ChatGPT plugins are gaining space to work, not just a way to connect to other services. At Dev Day on September 29, OpenAI introduced extensions that let developers build sidebar homes, interactive panels and file viewers for their plugins. It also said it is adding support for automations triggered by events in connected apps—a planned capability, not a completed one.

A place for the connected tool

ChatGPT already supports plugins that connect to services such as Slack, SharePoint, Airtable and Google Drive. The new extensions let developers give a plugin a dedicated home in the ChatGPT sidebar. An interactive panel can put the tool’s controls within reach while someone is chatting, rather than leaving the connection entirely behind the conversation.

Developers can also add viewers for the file formats their products use. That gives a plugin room to show the material someone is working with, not merely retrieve information from another service. The change is in how a connected product can be presented and used inside ChatGPT.

From building a plugin to choosing one

OpenAI introduced a Plugin Creator to help developers build plugins and redesigned how they submit them to its directory. The submission flow is intended to give developers clearer feedback. OpenAI also says it has improved how plugins are ranked and recommended, both in the directory and when they appear during a conversation.

Being shown a plugin is separate from granting it access. When users choose one, they can approve its access needs individually. That distinction becomes more important as OpenAI gives plugins more visible places to appear and more ways to work with connected material.

A shared site, separate connections

ChatGPT Sites, the lightweight websites people can build with ChatGPT, can host plugins too. In OpenAI’s example, colleagues using a shared Site could work with the same app experience while each uses their own connected data and permissions. Sharing the Site would not mean sharing one person’s account connections.

The proposed trigger

For that second path, OpenAI says it is adding support for the proposed MCP Events specification. An event in a connected app would then be able to start a plugin automation, instead of the work beginning with a request in the chat. OpenAI also says it is making automations easier to add and manage.

The distinction is worth keeping in view: the panels give people a new way to work with a plugin now, while event-triggered automation remains a capability OpenAI says it is adding. One changes where the tool can be used; the other would change what sets it in motion.