ChatGPT Rolls Out Voice Chat Feature to All Free Users on iOS and Android

The voice chat feature was earlier only available to ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise customers.

Written by Manas Mitul, Edited by Siddharth Suvarna | Updated: 22 November 2023 15:56 IST

ChatGPT Rolls Out Voice Chat Feature to All Free Users on iOS and Android

Photo Credit: Reuters

ChatGPT voice chat support is now available on both Android and iOS

Highlights

The voice chat feature appears as a headphone icon in the ChatGPT app
Users can chose from among five different voices
Free users won't get updated real time information

OpenAI has been in the news for the turmoil that followed the ouster of Sam Altman as CEO on Friday. Since then, nearly all of OpenAI employees had threatened to quit and demanded the board's resignation. The AI firm appointed former Twitch boss Emmett Shear as new CEO, and Altman was hired by Microsoft to lead AI research at the company. However, following talks with the OpenAI board, Altman has now agreed to return as CEO to the company he co-founded. Amid the chaos, OpenAI has continued updating its most popular product. The company announced on Wednesday that ChatGPT with voice would be available to all users of the app for free. The voice conversations feature was earlier rolled out to ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise subscribers.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), OpenAI announced that voice support had been added to the ChatGPT app for all free users. “Download the app on your phone and tap the headphones icon to start a conversation,” the post added. In its post, OpenAI included a video of the working feature, conversing with a ChatGPT user.

ChatGPT with voice is now available to all free users. Download the app on your phone and tap the headphones icon to start a conversation.

Sound on 🔊 pic.twitter.com/c5sCFDAWU6
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) November 21, 2023

Gadgets 360 can confirm that voice support has been rolled out to the ChatGPT app on both iOS and Android smartphones. The feature appears as a headphone icon on the bottom right of the chat window. After tapping the icon, users get a ‘Chat with voice' introduction screen, which includes information about the voice conversations feature. It also clarifies that all voice chats will be saved as transcriptions in chat history. Audio clips of chats, however, are not stored. The app also auto detects the language. Users can also select a preferred language in Settings for more accurate voice detection.

Chat with voice feature on ChatGPT for iOS

The ChatGPT app then lets users chose a preferred voice for the feature from an option of five voices. After providing microphone permission, the Chat with voice feature is set to use, allowing users to have free-flowing spoken conversations with ChatGPT. Keep in mind though that users on the free plan cannot get real time updates as they do from voice assistants like Siri or Google Assistant as the app is restricted to accessing available data till January 2022.

Voice conversation first rolled out to ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise members in September. Back then, OpenAI had said that it had worked with professional voice actors to offer the new feature. The chat with voice feature on the ChatGPT app answers questions by converting spoken queries into text that can be understood by the chatbot. Responses are then converted into audio format using the company's new text-to-speech (TTS) technology.

ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise customers also get the added functionality of browsing the web and getting real-time data via ChatGPT, beyond its information cutoff date. OpenAI has said that the feature would also be expanded to all users soon.

Is the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 the best foldable phone you can buy in India right now? We discuss the company's new clamshell-style foldable handset on the latest episode of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Further reading: ChatGPT, OpenAI, ChatGPT Voice

Manas Mitul

Email Manas Mitul

In his time as a journalist, Manas Mitul has written on a wide spectrum of beats including politics, culture and sports. He enjoys reading, walking around in museums and rewatching films. Talk to Manas about football and tennis, but maybe don’t bring up his video game backlog. More