[macOS desktop] September 11: “What’s new” stops at August 25; unclear app improvements and release cadence

What is the type of issue?

Documentation is missing / confusing; possible in-app release-information refresh issue.

Feedback submitted first

Feedback ID: no-active-thread-01a091ef-bf96-7843-b187-fb01a59a4664

I submitted in-product feedback and received the “Feedback submitted” confirmation before opening this new issue.

What is the issue?

I am a ChatGPT Pro subscriber using the ChatGPT desktop app on macOS. Over approximately the past month, I have perceived substantially less meaningful improvement in the application than in earlier weeks. The app's own release information does not make it clear what has changed, which fixes have shipped, or whether the apparent slowdown reflects development priorities, staged availability, or missing release notes.

This report concerns the desktop application's in-app “What's new” menu and release transparency as observed on September 11, 2026. Chat, Work, and Codex should be identified separately where their behavior or availability differs. A model launch, a server-side feature, a CLI release, and an installed desktop build are not interchangeable.

Directly observed menu contents

Two screenshots supplied for this report show the same three visible entries:

Visible title	Visible date
Browser extensions, site tools, and …	25 Aug
Codex and ChatGPT updates	20 Aug
Computer History	13 Aug

The first title is truncated in the menu. A Full changelog link appears below these entries.

The newest announcement visible in both screenshots is August 25 — 17 days before this September 11 report. The menu does not display a build number, refresh timestamp, or explanation of which updates it includes.

The screenshots establish the displayed menu contents, not the installed app version, the active Chat/Work/Codex mode, behavior on every account, or the absence of all product updates. The exact installed build was not captured in the supplied evidence. The screenshot contents are transcribed here; the image files are not attached to this issue.

How to inspect the reported behavior

1. In the macOS desktop app, open the question-mark/help control and inspect What's new.
2. Record the titles and dates shown. The September 11 captures show only the three entries above.
3. Compare the menu with the official changelog and ChatGPT release notes, and determine which newer entries apply to this desktop installation.

This is an observed UI state, not a claim that every installation reproduces it or that restarting/reinstalling has been tested.

Comparison with current official release information

The ChatGPT & Codex changelog includes the August 20 and August 25 announcements, but those entries do not identify corresponding desktop build numbers.

There are newer product announcements. For example, the September 9 ChatGPT release notes announce Deep Research in Work and Codex and explicitly include desktop availability for eligible users. This is evidence against a blanket “nothing shipped” claim. It also makes the scope of the in-app menu important: users need to know why newer desktop-applicable announcements are absent and which changes require a client update rather than server-side availability.

Requested resolution

1. Explain the menu's behavior: is it stale, failing to refresh, intentionally showing selected highlights, or filtered by account/rollout? Correct any refresh problem and label the intended scope.
2. Provide build-specific release information: meaningful features, fixes, regressions, known issues, and maintenance-only changes, tied to the actual desktop versions that contain them.
3. Clarify the last month's desktop progress: distinguish installed-app changes from model, CLI, plugin, and server-side releases. Identify platform, Chat/Work/Codex scope, plan eligibility, and rollout dependencies.
4. Clarify any safety-related delivery impact: OpenAI's September 1 Path to Astra acknowledges delaying parts of Astra's development and release while strengthening safeguards. Has that work also delayed specific desktop features or rollouts? If so, identify the affected product scope and current status at an appropriate public level.

The safety question is not a claim that employee resignations caused an app-development slowdown. The screenshot evidence cannot establish that causal connection. I am requesting transparency, not weaker safeguards or confidential personnel information.

Relationship to the older report

#30099 was opened on June 25, 2026 about the external changelog website. Preliminary September observations were added there before I requested this separate report. This new issue provides a dedicated September in-app observation, the current Feedback ID, inspection steps, and the requested clarification of desktop update cadence. The older report is historical context, not a substitute for this submission.

No private task content, account identifiers, local paths, or raw logs are included. The Feedback ID is the supplied support-correlation identifier.

Start at the macOS app's question-mark/help control and inspect the What's new menu, then compare its three displayed entries with the linked ChatGPT & Codex changelog and ChatGPT release notes. Done means explaining the menu's intended scope or documenting a confirmed refresh problem, with desktop build, platform, product scope, plan, and rollout details made clear.