OpenAI Introduces Group Chats While Perplexity Debuts Comet on Android
The twin launches show how AI makers are moving beyond pure Q&A assistants toward a multimodal social environment.
News
- OpenAI Introduces Group Chats While Perplexity Debuts Comet on Android
- AppsFlyer Launches 8 Offerings to Help Businesses Go From Clutter to Clarity
- Huang Shrugs Off Bubble Fears, Says AI Has Shifted Into Full-Scale Deployment
- UAE Makes First Cross-Border Digital Currency Payment to China
- TII and Space42 Partner for UAE’s First Space-to-ground Quantum Communication Network
- Humain Ramps Up Middle East AI Push With Adobe, Qualcomm, AMD, and Cisco Partnerships
OpenAI on Thursday launched group chats for ChatGPT users globally — including those on Free, Go, Plus, and Pro plans. The release follows a limited pilot across markets such as Japan and New Zealand last week.
The feature allows up to 20 people to join a shared conversation with ChatGPT, enabling friends, family, and coworkers to collaborate. OpenAI says ChatGPT will “know when to jump in and when to stay quiet,” allowing users to tag the assistant for input explicitly. Individual settings and memory remain private.
The introduction of group chats positions ChatGPT less as a one-to-one personal assistant and more as a lightweight social and productivity platform. Even small details, such as emoji reactions and the ability to reference user profile images, point to an ambition to integrate socialising into an AI-run environment.
The launch comes shortly after OpenAI introduced GPT-5.1, including its Instant and Thinking variants designed to improve real-time responsiveness and long-form reasoning.
The group chat rollout lands as competition intensifies across the broader AI and search ecosystem.
Meanwhile, rival Perplexity launched its Comet browser on Android, testing the waters beyond desktop. Comet integrates voice-driven search across tabs, automated research, shopping functionality, and cross-tab summarisation.
The browser also includes an ad blocker and will soon add a conversational agent capable of taking actions across sites, quick-action shortcuts, and an integrated password manager.
Perplexity says iOS support is forthcoming, but highlighted Android as a priority due to interest from carriers and device makers. As a result, we can expect some new partnerships to be announced.
Both launches demonstrate how AI developers are moving beyond pure Q&A assistants toward a multimodal social environment.
