ChatGPT's voice feature is leaving the macOS app in January 2026

ChatGPT

If you regularly use ChatGPT’s Voice feature on macOS, a change coming early next year is worth preparing for. OpenAI has confirmed that the Voice experience will be removed from the ChatGPT Mac app, cutting off spoken interactions on the desktop for Mac users.

In a recent update to the macOS app, OpenAI quietly announced that Voice support will be retired effective January 15, 2026. The company says the decision is part of a broader effort to focus on more unified and improved voice experiences across its platforms. Importantly, no other ChatGPT features on macOS are affected by this change.

For users who depend on voice input and responses while working on a Mac, the announcement is disappointing. Voice mode has become a practical way to interact with ChatGPT hands-free, whether for dictation, brainstorming, accessibility needs, or simply reducing screen fatigue during long sessions. Losing that capability on the native macOS app creates an immediate gap in the desktop experience.

That said, this move appears far more like a pause than a permanent retreat. Voice interfaces are becoming increasingly central to how people interact with AI systems, and OpenAI has repeatedly signalled that voice will play a major role in its future products. With the company also working on new hardware concepts where voice interaction is expected to be the primary interface, abandoning desktop voice support altogether would be an odd long-term strategy.

OpenAI’s wording offers a clue. By stating that it wants to focus on more unified and improved voice experiences, the company is strongly hinting at a deeper architectural overhaul. The existing Voice implementation on macOS may simply not align with where OpenAI wants its voice stack to go next. Differences in system permissions, audio handling, latency, and performance between platforms could all be factors, especially as voice interactions become more real-time and conversational.

Another likely reason for the change is consistency. Today, ChatGPT’s voice experience behaves slightly differently across the web, mobile apps, and desktop environments. Consolidating development around fewer implementations allows OpenAI to iterate faster, reduce bugs, and roll out new voice capabilities more evenly. From that perspective, removing Voice from the Mac app may be a necessary short-term sacrifice to enable a stronger cross-platform experience later.