--- title: OpenAI adds a local activity timeline to ChatGPT on Mac description: OpenAI is rolling out an opt-in Computer History feature for ChatGPT's macOS desktop app, available to Work, Business, Enterprise, and Pro users. Unlike... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/openai-adds-a-local-activity-timeline-to-chatgpt-on-mac-e5ga8j5sm twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: OpenAI adds a local activity timeline to ChatGPT on Mac | daily.dev og:description: OpenAI is rolling out an opt-in Computer History feature for ChatGPT's macOS desktop app, available to Work, Business, Enterprise, and Pro users. Unlike... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/openai-adds-a-local-activity-timeline-to-chatgpt-on-mac-e5ga8j5sm og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/E5Ga8j5SM.png og:image:alt: OpenAI adds a local activity timeline to ChatGPT on Mac og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # OpenAI adds a local activity timeline to ChatGPT on Mac **[Collections](https://daily.dev/sources/collections)** · 3 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary OpenAI is rolling out an opt-in Computer History feature for ChatGPT's macOS desktop app, available to Work, Business, Enterprise, and Pro users. Unlike Microsoft's Recall (screenshots) or OpenAI's earlier Chronicle experiment (OCR), Computer History logs interaction events like clicks, typing, and app switching to build a local activity timeline, so users don't have to re-explain context in new conversations. Data stays on-device, apps/sites can be excluded, tracking can be paused, and captured data can be deleted. However, activity summaries are still shared with the model during chats. The feature is off by default and rolling out globally now, with a delay of a few weeks for users in the EEA, UK, and Switzerland pending regulatory review. ## Content OpenAI has rolled out Computer History, an opt-in feature for the ChatGPT desktop app that gives ChatGPT and Codex a memory of what you've been doing on your Mac. The idea is that instead of re-explaining your context every time you open a chat, the assistant can pick up where you left off, spot patterns in your work, and suggest skills or scheduled tasks for things you do repeatedly. ## How it actually works Computer History doesn't take screenshots. That's a deliberate departure from both Microsoft's Recall and OpenAI's own earlier Chronicle experiment, which used OCR on screen captures. Instead, it taps into macOS's accessibility framework to log interaction events: clicks, keystrokes, keyboard shortcuts, and app switches. No screen recordings, no microphone or system audio, and private browsing sessions are excluded entirely. The feature is available to ChatGPT Work, Business, Enterprise, and Pro users on macOS, and it's off by default. You have to opt in, and on Business or Enterprise workspaces both the admin and the individual user need to consent. Once enabled, you can exclude specific apps or sites, pause tracking, and delete captured data locally. Temporary event files get deleted after 48 hours regardless. Here's the part that's raising eyebrows: the resulting memory files are stored locally as plain-text Markdown, unencrypted, and readable by any program running under the same macOS account. Data stays on your machine, but summaries of it are still shared with the model to generate responses. OpenAI says the memory files themselves aren't used for training, though it's worth noting that if that context surfaces in a later chat, it could still end up as training data through the normal chat pipeline. OpenAI's own documentation flags an increased risk of prompt injection with this feature turned on, and recommends against using it alongside communication apps or anything involving sensitive data. That's a fairly blunt admission for a feature being pushed out broadly. Rollout is global to start, with EEA, UK, and Switzerland users getting access in the coming weeks, presumably while OpenAI works through the regulatory questions that plain-text keystroke logs tend to invite. ## The reaction has been mixed, to put it mildly OpenAI's own team, including Ari X, has been fielding privacy questions and pointing to the safeguards built in: local storage, opt-in consent, exclude lists, pause and delete controls. Fair enough, and those are real protections compared to a screenshot-based approach. But plenty of people are skeptical anyway. ThePrimeagen's reaction was pretty blunt: most people probably don't want GPT remembering everything they've been doing on the internet, regardless of how it's stored. And it's hard not to notice the framing problem here. This is a feature that logs your clicks and keystrokes across apps and websites. Calling it ## Questions this post answers ### What is Computer History in ChatGPT for Mac and how does it work? Computer History is an opt-in feature in ChatGPT's macOS desktop app that builds a local timeline of user activity across apps and websites by logging interaction events such as clicks, typing, and app switching, rather than taking screenshots or using OCR. It is available to Work, Business, Enterprise, and Pro users, is off by default, and lets users exclude apps, pause tracking, or delete captured data. _daily.dev helps developers track how AI assistants like ChatGPT evolve their context-awareness features._ ### How is OpenAI's Computer History different from Microsoft Recall? Computer History avoids screenshots entirely, unlike Microsoft's Recall which captures screen images. It instead logs interaction events like clicks and typing, and differs from OpenAI's own earlier Chronicle experiment which used OCR to read on-screen text. This event-logging approach means no image scraping is involved in building the activity timeline. _Developers weighing privacy tradeoffs in AI tools can follow feature comparisons like this on daily.dev._ ### Does ChatGPT's Computer History data ever leave my Mac? Yes, partially. While the raw activity data stays local on the machine and users can exclude apps, pause tracking, or delete captured history, summaries of that activity are still shared with the model during chat sessions, meaning the feature is not fully offline or private despite being described as local. _daily.dev keeps privacy-conscious developers current on how AI features actually handle personal data._ ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 0 discussions (as of 2026-08-18). **TL;DR:** No discussion data was provided, so this reflects only the post's own summary: skepticism is implied but there's no actual community reaction to draw from. **Sentiment:** 10% positive · 20% mixed · 70% skeptical --- Tags: [#openai](https://daily.dev/tags/openai), [#privacy](https://daily.dev/tags/privacy), [#chatgpt](https://daily.dev/tags/chatgpt), [#mac](https://daily.dev/tags/mac) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/openai-adds-a-local-activity-timeline-to-chatgpt-on-mac-e5ga8j5sm) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"OpenAI adds a local activity timeline to ChatGPT on Mac","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/openai-adds-a-local-activity-timeline-to-chatgpt-on-mac-e5ga8j5sm","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/openai-adds-a-local-activity-timeline-to-chatgpt-on-mac-e5ga8j5sm"},"datePublished":"2026-08-13T20:15:56.157Z","dateModified":"2026-08-18T02:01:13.917Z","description":"OpenAI is rolling out an opt-in Computer History feature for ChatGPT's macOS desktop app, available to Work, Business, Enterprise, and Pro users. 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