If your email and calendar live in iCloud, ChatGPT can now work with them. It can find emails, catch you up on your inbox, check your schedule, and change your calendar events. It works on every ChatGPT plan, free included.
OpenAI added it on October 27.
What can it do?
Once you connect iCloud, you can ask ChatGPT things like:
- "Find the email where my client sent her logo."
- "What did I miss in my inbox this morning?"
- "What does my Thursday look like?"
- "Move my 2 PM call on Friday to 3 PM."
Who can use it?
- Every ChatGPT plan, including Free
- On the web, the desktop app and the iPhone app
How do you connect it?
- In ChatGPT, open Settings, then Plugins.
- Find iCloud Mail or iCloud Calendar and select it.
- Pick Install plugin if you see it.
- Pick Connect. You will need an Apple app-specific password, not your normal Apple password. (That is a special password Apple makes for one app. You create it in your Apple Account settings.)
- For Mail, use your iCloud email address. For Calendar, use your main Apple Account email. They may not be the same.
- Read what it asks to see, then finish connecting.
To check or remove the connection later, go back to Settings, then Plugins.
On an older phone app, you may see the word Apps instead of Plugins.
Try this: plan your week from the parking lot
Imagine if you could sit in your parked car, open ChatGPT, and plan your whole week in a few questions.
Look at my calendar for this week. Tell me which days are the most packed. Then look at my inbox and list any client emails from the last 3 days that I have not answered.
Then:
Find 2 hours this week with nothing on my calendar, and tell me when they are. I want to use them to work on my business, not in it.
Then put that time on your calendar for yourself.
Bonus: ChatGPT can listen to your voice memos now too
On October 6, OpenAI also added audio uploads. You can upload a recording, like a voice memo or a client call. ChatGPT can write it out, sum it up, or turn it into notes or a draft follow up email. It needs a paid ChatGPT plan, and it may not be in every country yet.
To try it, attach the audio file to a chat and say what you need:
Here is my voice memo from the client call. Turn it into notes with 3 action items, then draft a short follow up email to the client.
What should you watch out for?
- Privacy. Your email holds a lot of private things. Only connect what you are comfortable with. You can disconnect any time in Settings.
- Mistakes. Check any calendar change before you count on it.
- Transcripts. OpenAI says audio transcripts can have errors. Read them before you send anything.
- Asking first. A recording of a client call is their words too. Ask before you record and upload it.
The bigger picture
Here's the thing. You check email on your phone anyway. Now you can ask a question instead of scrolling. That is time back in your day.