ChatGPT App Update: GPT-5 for Free, Adds Personalities, App Accent Color, Custom Instruction, and Disable Features

OpenAI unveils GPT-5, a revolutionary unified AI system with built-in reasoning that delivers expert-level intelligence. Featuring dramatic improvements in coding, writing, and health applications with 45% fewer hallucinations and superior efficiency compared to previous models.
New GPT-5 update just rolled out to mobile phones and desktops alike. The latest ChatGPT v1.2025.217 beta for Android enables GPT-5 for free tier. iOS was the first to receive GPT-5 right after launch for paid users. Starting today, all free and paid users can enjoy ChatGPT 5 on all platforms.

ChatGPT-5 app update comes with new features
OpenAI has officially unveiled GPT-5, marking what they claim to be their most significant advancement in artificial intelligence to date. Released on August 7, 2025, this model comes with different personalities which can be changed under a new option called Custom Instructions. Plus, the app gets new accent colors to choose from for the chats! According to OpenAI, GPT-5 also hallucinates less.
One Unified AI System
GPT-5 operates as a multi-tiered intelligence engine:
- Default Mode:Â Answers most queries quickly with exceptional accuracy.
- GPT-5 Thinking:Â Switches to extended reasoning for harder, multi-step problems.
- Real-Time Router:Â Decides which approach to use based on query complexity, context, and user intent.
- Mini Model:Â Engages after usage limits are reached, keeping performance high for lighter queries.
This architecture means users no longer need to manually select different models — GPT-5 dynamically adapts to the task at hand.
Technical Excellence Across Benchmarks
The numbers behind GPT-5’s performance tell a compelling story of advancement across multiple domains:
- Mathematics: 94.6% on AIME 2025 without tools
- Coding: 74.9% on SWE-bench Verified, 88% on Aider Polyglot
- Multimodal Understanding: 84.2% on MMMU
- Health: 46.2% on HealthBench Hard
- Graduate-level Science: 88.4% on GPQA with GPT-5 pro’s extended reasoning
Even without tools, GPT-5 outperforms GPT-4o, o3, and earlier models in accuracy and depth.
What’s new in latest ChatGPT app update?
The welcome screen now shows ChatGPT 5 for free tier. While this may be a server side switch, free users are now starting to get access to GPT-5 on mobile and desktop.
Custom Instructions & Personalities
GPT-5 addresses several user experience issues that have plagued previous models. The system is less sycophantic, avoiding excessive agreement or flattery that made previous versions feel artificial. It uses fewer unnecessary emojis and provides more thoughtful, substantial responses that feel more like conversations with an intelligent colleague than interactions with obviously artificial systems.
Custom Instructions lets you customize your interactions with ChatGPT by providing specific details and guidelines for your chats. Active for new chats, whenever you edit your custom instructions, they’ll take effect in all new chats you create. Older conversations won’t be updated.

You can add you name, occupation, or anything else ChatGPT should know about you. The best part is OpenAI added personalities to ChatGPT 5.
The model also introduces new preset personalities (Cynic, Robot, Listener, and Nerd) that allow users to customize interaction styles without writing complex prompts. This personalization capability makes the system more adaptable to different communication preferences and use cases.
Personality types:
- Default
Cheerful and adaptive - Cynic
Critical and sarcastic - Robot
Efficient and blunt - Listener
Thoughtful and supportive - Nerd
Exploratory and enthusiastic

Choose Accent Color
You can now choose an accent color for your chats from a total of 8 accent colors. Of which 6 are free and two are for Plus & Pro respectively. No more dull gray accent.

Disable Features
Under Custom Instructions, you can even disable features you don’t like. Just scroll all the way down and select advanced option. Under capabilities you can disable:
- Web search
Search the web to find answers - Code
Execute code using Code Interpreter - Canvas
Collaborate with ChatGPT on text and
code - Advanced Voice
More natural conversation in voice mode
ChatGPT 5 Features
Software Development
GPT-5 can create beautiful, responsive websites, applications, and games from a single prompt while showing sophisticated understanding of design principles like spacing, typography, and visual hierarchy.
Early testers have reported being amazed by the model’s ability to translate abstract ideas into polished, functional applications with an eye for modern design trends. This represents a significant shift from previous models that often required extensive refinement and multiple iterations to achieve professional-quality results.
Creative Writing
GPT-5’s writing capabilities have evolved beyond mere text generation to become a sophisticated creative collaborator. The model excels at handling structural complexity in writing, maintaining consistent literary forms like unrhymed iambic pentameter while preserving natural flow and expressive clarity.
The improvement is particularly evident in creative tasks that require both technical precision and artistic sensibility. Where GPT-4o might produce competent but predictable content, GPT-5 demonstrates genuine literary depth, creating work with striking metaphors, vivid imagery, and emotional resonance that feels authentically human.
Advancing Healthcare Support
In the healthcare domain, GPT-5 achieves unprecedented performance on HealthBench evaluations, acting more like an active thought partner than a passive information provider. The model proactively identifies potential health concerns, asks clarifying questions, and adapts its responses based on user context, knowledge level, and geographic location.
This advancement is crucial as it enables more nuanced, helpful health-related conversations while maintaining appropriate boundaries and safety measures. The model’s improved reliability in this sensitive domain could significantly enhance how people understand and advocate for their health.
Thinking Smarter, Not Harder
One of GPT-5’s most impressive achievements is its efficiency in reasoning. The model delivers superior performance while using 50-80% fewer output tokens compared to previous reasoning models. This efficiency breakthrough means users get better results faster, while the system requires less computational resources to achieve superior outcomes.
This efficiency extends beyond raw performance metrics. GPT-5’s ability to determine when reasoning is necessary and when quick responses suffice means users experience optimal performance without unnecessary delays or resource consumption.
Less Hallucinations
GPT-5 makes significant strides in factual accuracy, showing 45% fewer factual errors compared to GPT-4o, and an impressive 80% reduction compared to OpenAI o3 when reasoning is engaged. This improvement addresses one of the most persistent challenges in AI systems—the tendency to generate plausible-sounding but incorrect information.
The model’s enhanced reliability stems from improved training methods and architectural innovations that better ground responses in factual information while maintaining the flexibility needed for creative and analytical tasks.
Promoting Honest Communication
Beyond accuracy, GPT-5 demonstrates improved honesty in its communications. When faced with impossible tasks or missing information, the model clearly communicates its limitations rather than attempting to provide false solutions. This represents a crucial advancement in building trustworthy AI systems that users can rely on for critical tasks.