OpenAI drastically updates Codex desktop app to use all other apps on your computer, generate images, preview webpages

Confirming it has reached 3 million weekly developers, OpenAI is massively updating its Codex developer environment via its Mac and Windows desktop apps today to bring it closer to the “Super App” the company has confirmed it is pursuing.

Before today, Codex was primarily an environment for using OpenAI’s underlying language models to write, edit, debug and ship software as directed by the user.

Now, Codex will be able to access all of the other apps on your computer, surface relevant information from within them to you when asked or proactively, take actions as directed in said applications, and, in the case of Mac users, even do so while you continue manually using your computer simultaneously to your agents working in the background.

Andrew Ambrosino, an OpenAI technical staffer on the Codex team, described the change plainly in an embargoed press briefing I attended virtually yesterday: “Codex can actually click on apps, launch apps, and type into apps. This works with any apps on your machine.”

Codex on desktop is further getting its own built-in web browser, allowing users to preview their front-end development, and a directly integrated pipeline to OpenAI’s powerful AI image generation model gpt-image-1.5, allowing users to generate imagery for their projects — everything from websites to presentations to full playable PC games with hundreds of assets — all in the same style.

As Thibault "Tibo" Sottiaux, Head of Codex at OpenAI, said during the briefing: “It’s not just about the growth. It is putting a very capable agent in the hands of builders, and now we’re seeing that we’re able to expand and do a lot more work entirely across your computer"

Asked why OpenAI was pursuing all this in Codex, not its more recognizable flagship app, ChatGPT, Sottiaux told VentureBeat: “Codex is our most powerful agent.It already worked on your computer, and so we’re expanding the capabilities there. It felt very natural. We will make it make sense at some point."

The update comes as rival Anthropic has previously courted similar use cases with the launch of its Claude Cowork and redesigned Claude Code desktop app views, all available within the Claude desktop app for Mac and Windows. But Claude does not allow for simultaneous background app cursor usage from the desktop app across all of a user's apps like Codex does.

Multiple agentic computer use workflows in the background on macOS

The most significant technological leap in this release is "Computer Use," limited for now to macOS users.

This feature allows Codex to break out of the traditional chatbot container to "see, click, and type" across all applications on a machine.

Crucially, this happens in the background. "It can use apps on your computer in the background, as opposed to taking over your entire computer," explained Caffrey Lynch of OpenAI’s developer product communications.

This enables "multi-agent" workflows where Codex might be testing a frontend change or triaging a JIRA ticket while the developer continues working in a different application.

For Windows users, the core Codex desktop app remains available and supported — as does pulling information in from those apps to surface to the user in Codex — though it lacks the cursor-level background interaction available on Mac at launch.

A one-stop shop for end-to-end software development

Beyond operating the OS, OpenAI is doubling down on the "Software Development Lifecycle" (SDLC). The Codex app now functions more like a unified workspace, supporting everything from GitHub PR reviews to managing remote infrastructure.

"The simplest way to think about this release is teaching Codex and the app to work across a much larger surface area," said Andrew Ambrosino, lead of Codex app development. This surface area now includes:

Integrated Browser: An in-app browser allows developers to iterate on frontend designs by commenting directly on DOM elements, providing precise instructions for the agent to follow.Visual Primitives: By integrating gpt-image-1.5, Codex can now generate and iterate on images for mockups and game assets directly within the development workflow.Expanded Sidebar: The app now includes rich previews for non-code files such as PDFs, spreadsheets, and slide decks, alongside a summary pane to track agent plans and sources.Terminal & SSH: The update adds support for multiple terminal tabs and an alpha feature for connecting to remote devboxes via SSH.

To connect these disparate tasks, OpenAI is releasing more than 90 new plugins. These connectors—including CircleCI, GitLab, and Microsoft Suite—allow the agent to gather context and take action across the entire toolchain a developer uses daily.

In a demo video shown off during the briefing, OpenAI presented an example showing the user typing into the Codex prompt entry field, “Can you check Slack, Gmail, Google Calendar, and Notion and tell me what needs my attention?” showing how Codex can now scan across multiple apps and gather information from them all in single prompt, and surface what matters most to the user.

“You can @ mention them if you want Codex to use a specific app, or if not, Codex can discover which apps to use,” Ambrosino said.

The ‘heartbeat’ of productivity

One of the more subtle but powerful shifts is the introduction of persistent agency. Through "Heartbeat Automations," Codex can now schedule future work for itself and "wake up" to continue long-term tasks.

This allows teams to set up agents that monitor Slack channels or Notion docs and proactively update documentation or landing PRs.

This is supported by a new "Memory" feature, currently in preview. Memory allows Codex to remember personal preferences, previous corrections, and gathered information, reducing the need for extensive custom instructions in every new session.

"As you use Codex, Codex also becomes better at being proactive," noted Sottiaux.

This proactivity manifests in a "daily brief" style feature where the app suggests how to start the day by identifying open Google Doc comments or relevant Slack context.

It's similar in spirit and practice to the new "Routines" feature launched by Anthropic for its Claude Code product earlier this week.

Licensing, pricing, and availability

OpenAI has recently transitioned toward a more flexible pricing model for teams, including a $100 plan and pay-as-you-go options to accommodate the increased usage of autonomous agents. For individual users, these updates are rolling out today to those signed in to the Codex desktop app with ChatGPT.

While the Codex desktop app is available on both macOS and Windows, the rollout of specific features is tiered:

Background Computer Use: macOS only at launch.Personalization (Memory/Suggestions): Coming soon for Enterprise, Edu, EU, and UK users.Core Software Development Life Cycle Updates: Available to all desktop app users starting today.

The vision: from developer tool to Super App for all

When asked if these features represent the foundation of an AI "Super App," Sottiaux confirmed the strategy: "We’re building the Super App in the open and evolving it out of the Codex app".

The goal is to address the reality that developers spend a majority of their time on coordination and context-gathering rather than writing code.

By bringing Codex closer to the operating system and the broader ecosystem of developer tools, OpenAI is positioning it as the central nervous system for modern software development.

"Our mission is to ensure that AGI benefits all of humanity," the company stated in its official announcement. "That means narrowing the gap between what people can imagine and what they can actually build".