Restore the Ability to Use Version Arrows in ChatGPT

ChatGPT Feature requests
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1

Problem
About six days ago, the version arrows were replaced with version history. Previously, you could freely switch between different versions of prompts or responses within a chat. Now, accessing a different version requires creating a new chat through external branching. In terms of functionality, the new feature is strictly more limited than the previous one. This means that certain workflows are no longer supported. I will give a few examples below.

Lost Workflow 1: Temporary Chats
The version feature is completely gone from temporary chats. This means that you can no longer evaluate different prompts or responses and then continue from the version you prefer. As someone who uses temporary chats more often than regular ones, this is a significant downgrade.

Lost Workflow 2: Discussing Independent Parts of a Larger Topic
Imagine reading a book with 20 chapters and wanting to discuss it with ChatGPT. Previously, you could introduce the book and then start discussing Chapter 1. When you wanted to move on, you could edit the initial prompt and begin discussing Chapter 2. Eventually, you could have 20 internal branches, each containing a discussion of a different chapter. Everything would remain organised within a single chat, and you could freely go back and forth between discussing different chapters. With the new feature, this is no longer possible. You either have to keep everything in one increasingly long chat or potentially end up with as many as 20 different chats, one for each chapter you return to discussing. This limitation applies more broadly to any task that can be separated into independent components.

Request
I acknowledge the performance benefits of the new feature. Therefore, my request is to give users the option to choose between version arrows or version history. This could be implemented as a toggle or dropdown somewhere in the settings.

If you are also affected by this change, please consider leaving a like or a comment to help bring attention to the issue.

I will also submit this feedback directly to the support team via email.

2

We need this ASAP. The new UI/UX just destroys a key part of the inner working of the platform.

3

I preferred the previous conversation-editing behavior, where editing an earlier message felt like a quick alternate path within the same conversation.

With the newer “Branch in new chat” behavior, exploring a small detour creates another full chat, which adds clutter to the sidebar and makes it harder to move back and forth between alternate versions of the same conversation.

I’d like an option to keep temporary branches or edited-message paths inside the original conversation, while still retaining “Branch in new chat” for cases where I actually want a separate chat.

4

I can’t access data on the internal branch in the previous chat version. Yeah, when I typed a keyword, it showed in the search result. But, I can’t access it anymore. The different versions always lead to ‘Branch to a new chat’ buttons.