Did you get ChatGPT to write a hilarious story? Have you been debating philosophy or riffing jokes? OpenAI is making it easy to share these exchanges with a new "shared links" feature that generates a unique URL at the push of a button.
"Shared links offer a new way for users to share their ChatGPT conversations, replacing the old and burdensome method of sharing screenshots," says OpenAI. "With shared links, users can let others see—and continue—interesting, funny, or insightful exchanges with ChatGPT."
OpenAI is in the process of "turning on shared links for users on a rolling basis" and says it will be available to all users soon on desktop (chat.openai.com). The company has not set a timeline for the feature on its iOS mobile app, though it's "coming soon."
Beyond entertaining your friends, "shared links can be used to share content with people outside of your organization," says OpenAI. "This is useful when you have collaborators, such as contractors or clients, who need to see specific messages or conversations."
Link recipients can also keep the conversation going, which could be useful for collaborators who are working together on a spreadsheet, or planning a summer vacation, for example.
How Do You Create a Shared Link in ChatGPT?
To create a shared link, hover over the conversation in the side menu and click on the button with an arrow pointing up.
That will generate a preview link to review before sending. You can name the conversation, and select whether you'd like to share it anonymously or with your name by clicking on the three dots on the bottom right.
When you're ready, copy the link by pressing the green button. This generates a URL with the following structure: https://chat.openai.com/share/.When the recipient opens it up, they can view a snapshot of your conversation and build on it if they choose.
"This is particularly useful when you want to share a specific piece of information or a discussion with someone who is not part of the original conversation," says OpenAI. "This could be a notable example of a conversation, a specific discussion that needs to be referenced, or an important message that needs to be highlighted."
This feature is relatively basic, without bells and whistles like the ability to set a time limit someone can view the link, or the ability to limit who can open it. But ChatGPT will store the history of shared links in Settings and makes it easy to delete them.
Deleting shared links in Settings."Shared links can be used to create a reference point for future discussions," says OpenAI. "This can be particularly useful when you want to refer back to a previous conversation or message in the future."
Settings showing previously shared conversations.