ChatGPT’s new customization options are exactly what I’ve been waiting for to make my chats more personal

New custom instructions added to ChatGPT
The answers will be more personal to you
More new functions are expected in 2025

OpenAI has confirmed via X.com that they have introduced new customization features to ChatGPT. The new features that allow you to customize how the AI chatbot responds to you are now rolling out in the browser-based version of ChatGPT and on the Windows desktop.

The release currently doesn’t cover users in the EU, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland, but will be “available soon,” according to OpenAI. It’s also not available yet in the Mac app. OpenAI says the new features will come to desktop on MacOS “in the next few weeks.”

We’ve updated custom instructions to make it easier to customize how ChatGPT responds to you. With the new user interface, you can tell ChatGPT the properties you want it to have, how you want it to talk to you, and what rules you want it to follow. pic.twitter.com/BaXaqAw5cE17 January 2025

Access to the new functions

The update includes two new options in the Customize ChatGPT dialog box (accessible by clicking your icon and then selecting Customize ChatGPT from the menu that appears). The first is ‘What should ChatGPT call you?’ and the other is ‘What are you doing?’ who asks for your profession.

In ‘What properties should ChatGPT have?’ box you will find new options have been added including ‘Chatty’, ‘Witty’ and ‘Opinionated’.

Below this box is a new “What else would you like ChatGPT to know about you?” box where you can enter your interests and values.

Once you’ve entered some information into these fields, you’ll find that your interactions with ChatGPT are taken to a much more personal level, which can help save you time as you don’t have to keep asking it to answer in a certain way. It will also tailor information to your profession.

Click your user account icon at the top right of the screen to access the new customization options. (Image credit: OpenAI/Apple)

Much more personal

I have experimented with the options and the effects are immediate. For example, I love the more chatty GPT. And if you want to have some fun, you can ask to answer in “casual bro talk” or “like you’re in a Jane Austen novel”. In fact, the possibilities are endless.

The only thing I found a bit limiting was not being able to create multiple personality profiles. Currently, if you want to turn off your custom settings or easily switch between two different response modes, you have to go back to this menu and then edit and save it each time.

While welcome, this update to ChatGPT is relatively minor, and we’re still waiting for some of the more exciting updates we’ve been promised for 2025, notably an AI agent from ChatGPT. So far in 2025, OpenAI has added a new task feature, which goes some way towards the goal of an AI agent by allowing you to set reminders for specific times using ChatGPT, but is still a fair distance away from that full autonomous agent experience we are looking forward to.

Access to the new functions

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