Feature Request: In-conversation temporary side threads that do not affect the main chat context

I often work on long, complex conversations in ChatGPT, especially for research, coding architecture, project planning, and document drafting. When ChatGPT gives a long answer, I sometimes need to clarify a small detail, verify a term, or discuss one paragraph, but I don’t want that side discussion to interrupt or pollute the main conversation.

I’d like a feature similar to “temporary side threads” inside a conversation. A user could select a paragraph or click a message, open a right-side temporary thread, discuss the detail there, and then either discard it, save it as a branch, or summarize and merge the conclusion back into the main chat.

Ideally, these side threads should not affect the main chat context or memory unless the user explicitly clicks “merge back to main thread.” This would make ChatGPT much more useful for long-running projects, paper reading, code design, and structured reasoning.

Welcome to the dev Community! @Ethan_Zeng

Thanks for sharing this suggestion.

I can see how temporary side threads could be useful for exploring details, asking follow-up questions, or validating assumptions without disrupting the flow of a longer conversation.

I appreciate you taking the time to describe the workflow and use case. I'll pass this feedback along to the team for consideration.

~ Smith

Does the Codex side threads feature work for you?