Hi OpenAI Team,
I love using ChatGPT, and I’ve noticed that the term “Memory” often causes confusion for users. Many assume it refers to full chat recall, when in reality, it only retains long-term user preferences and not past conversations.
This misunderstanding has come up in my own experience—I was referring to the “Memory” system (where ChatGPT remembers my preferences), but ChatGPT interpreted it as a request to recall a past conversation, which it can’t do. This kind of double confusion happens because the word “Memory” strongly implies a full, recallable log rather than a curated set of stored details.
To improve clarity, I suggest renaming the “Memory” system to “Pinned Memories.” This name better reflects its function: pinned details that ChatGPT remembers about the user, rather than an active recall of past conversations.
Why “Pinned Memories” Works:
Avoids confusion between chat history and stored preferences.
Feels intuitive—“Pinned” implies user-curated details, not passive memory.
Easy to implement—a simple UI label change with a big impact.
For example:
“View Pinned Memories” instead of “Manage Memory”
“Pin this detail for future reference” when updating user preferences
“Your Pinned Memories have been updated!” after storing new info
This small change could significantly improve user understanding, especially for those new to ChatGPT.
Thanks for considering this! I’d love to hear thoughts from the team and the community.