Should I Build ChatGPT Apps? (adamjuras.com)

OpenAI’s new Apps SDK aims to make ChatGPT an “App Store,” but in practice it locks third-party tools inside a curated, model-mediated experience rather than enabling true platform ownership. The SDK routes user intent through ChatGPT’s models, enforces constrained widgets/cards for UI, and by default withholds user identifiers, emails, and retention hooks (there’s no home screen—just an empty text box). OpenAI will add in-app payments and revenue sharing, which eases monetization friction, but doesn’t address the fundamental ownership problem: you become a content provider inside ChatGPT’s garden—more like a Spotify artist or Amazon marketplace seller than an independent web/mobile product owner. That matters because defensibility and direct user relationships are central to product strategy. The Apps SDK is best for large brands or businesses with transactionally unique data/APIs (ecommerce, marketplaces, inventory, music) and for replaceable services that benefit from discovery. Technically and culturally it’s a subsuming move—anti-hyperlink and anti-open-web—where the ideal flow begins and ends inside ChatGPT. Practical takeaway: don’t ignore the reach (800M weekly users), but use ChatGPT as a distribution channel, not as the core of your product; continue to build and own your primary experience and data outside the walled garden.