OpenAI has added a festive feature to ChatGPT, letting users interact with a simulated Santa Claus. The holiday-themed update introduces Santa Mode, bringing Santa’s cheerful voice and personality to life. Users can chat with Santa on phones (iPhone and Android), computers (MacOS and Windows), and all major modern browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and more).
According to OpenAI, Santa Mode will be available worldwide until early January 2025.
To chat with Santa, users can enable his voice through ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode by selecting the snowflake icon near the input bar.
Santa Mode is temporary
Santa’s chats are designed to be temporary. They won’t save to the chat history, so you won’t be able to revisit them later. Chats with Santa also don’t affect how ChatGPT remembers or learns, so ChatGPT won’t retain any details you (or your kids) share with it.
OpenAI intentionally built this feature to ensure privacy for its users—perfect for children who may want to ask Santa questions without worrying about those conversations being stored or recalled later.
As part of its “12 Days of OpenAI” celebration, the company announced a special gift: resetting the usage limits for Advanced Voice Mode. This gives users who’ve exhausted their allotted voice time another chance to chat with Santa.
Video and screen sharing
OpenAI also introduced another update for Advanced Voice Mode: video and screen sharing, now available to Pro/Plus users by hitting the ‘video’ or ‘screen share’ button after tapping the voice icon.
The feature, first teased earlier in the year, allows users to visually share their surroundings or display content directly during conversations, eliminating the the need for lengthy descriptions or uploading screenshots.
