Yesterday, OpenAI launched its own app store — a full ecosystem for third-party apps that live inside ChatGPT. Spotify, Canva, Figma, Zillow, and Coursera are already in.

At first glance, this might feel like another platform milestone. But if you zoom out, it’s something deeper: a redefinition of where products “live” and how users experience them.

The interface is dissolving

For years, we’ve built products around distinct interfaces — apps, dashboards, websites—each one with its own onboarding, layout, and user rituals.

But ChatGPT’s app model flattens that. The user doesn’t switch contexts anymore. Instead of going to a product, they talk through it. The conversation itself becomes the UX.

That’s a subtle but massive shift. When interaction happens in language rather than buttons, the unit of value isn’t the screen — it’s the intent. Your product becomes a capability that gets summoned, not a place that gets visited.

What this means for product builders

1. The API is the new front door.
If your value can be invoked in a sentence (“Generate a proposal with my data”), you should be designing for it. The interface layer is becoming optional.

2. The discovery funnel changes.
Being “inside ChatGPT” means discovery might come from search within a conversation, not app store optimization. You’ll need a strategy for conversational discoverability — how users find and recall your capability in the flow of work.

3. Monetization will look like micro-commerce.
When tools are composable and invoked contextually, business models follow. Expect usage-based or task-based pricing rather than subscriptions.

4. Governance and trust become differentiators.
Multiple apps will coexist within a single chat session. That raises new questions around data access, permissions, and privacy guardrails — and opportunities for products that solve those issues elegantly.

The bigger signal

OpenAI isn’t just launching integrations. It’s quietly positioning ChatGPT as an operating system for digital intent — where every product becomes a skill the user can invoke in plain language.

If that’s where we’re headed, product teams need to ask: What part of our experience could live entirely inside a conversation?

That’s not about building for ChatGPT alone. It’s about rethinking what it means to be present for the user in a world where interaction starts with words.