Atlas has become my default browser and an essential part of my daily workflow. I chose it because I trust OpenAI and because having ChatGPT integrated directly alongside normal web browsing creates a unique experience.
The new browsing experience inside ChatGPT is simply not the same as Atlas. Atlas is a real browser first, with ChatGPT always there when we need it. That distinction matters.
For those of us who adopted Atlas, made it our default browser, and built our daily workflows around it, please give us the option to keep using Atlas after August 9, even if it only remains available in maintenance mode for existing users.
We trusted OpenAI enough to make Atlas our main browser. Please don’t take that experience away from the users who want to stay.
If you also use Atlas and want to keep it, please support this request.
Atlas is not simply another browser with an AI agent added to it. Its unique value is that users can browse normally while having an ordinary ChatGPT conversation that understands the active webpage.
I personally tested both alternatives suggested by OpenAI Support:
the new ChatGPT desktop application;
the ChatGPT Chrome extension/sidebar.
Neither preserves this workflow.
In the desktop application, the browser panel is visible in regular Chat mode, but ChatGPT explicitly requires switching to Work mode before it can access the page context. If the user remains in Chat, ChatGPT cannot see the open page.
The Chrome extension similarly routes browser-context interaction into a Work/Codex-style workflow.
This matters because Chat and Work are fundamentally different modes:
Work gives the AI agency to execute a task.
Chat provides an open-ended conversational space for analysis, learning, questioning, and thinking together.
Atlas supports shared context without requiring the user to delegate control of the browsing process. The proposed replacements currently do not.
I described this specific missing capability and the results of my testing in a separate feature request:
I agree that Atlas should remain available, at least until regular Chat and Projects can receive live active-page context in the desktop application and Chrome sidebar.
Retiring Atlas before providing a functionally equivalent replacement removes a valuable and genuinely unique interaction model.