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OpenAI has introduced a new ChatGPT feature that lets users experiment with varying tones, styles, and strategies by branching their conversation with the popular AI chatbot into multiple parallel threads.
The feature announced on Friday, September 5, works much like creating a copy of a user’s ChatGPT conversation to explore different directions with the chatbot while keeping the original conversation unchanged. For instance, a marketing team that uses ChatGPT to brainstorm ad copies can create separate branches of the conversation to experiment with formal, informal, or humorous tones while preserving the original prompt and AI-generated responses.
The new branching option is available to all users with a ChatGPT account as long as they are logged in on the web version of the app. It comes after requests from several users in the past to roll out similar capabilities. So far, ChatGPT users who wanted to explore different approaches had to overwrite their existing conversation with the chatbot or start a new chat altogether.
With the branching feature, users can more easily play around with what-if scenarios in their conversations with ChatGPT.
“Let us branch off from chats at specific points without losing the node we branched off from, sometimes I want to pursue multiple possible branches to a conversation or sometimes I want to go on like a 1-3 side prompt conversation without it muddying the context of the original chat,” a user claiming to be a software engineer said in a post on X dated August 22, 2025.
By popular request: you can now branch conversations in ChatGPT, letting you more easily explore different directions without losing your original thread.
Available now to logged-in users on web. https://t.co/l6RflhOGuK pic.twitter.com/CpVehkULOB
– OPENAI (@OpenAI) September 4, 2025
“By popular request: you can now branch conversations in ChatGPT, letting you more easily explore different directions without losing your original thread,” OpenAI wrote on Friday.
How to use the new ChatGPT feature
To be able to access the new feature on ChatGPT, you will need to have signed up on the platform and have the web version of it open on your device. Follow these steps:
– Now, hover over any message in the conversation window.
– Click on ‘More Actions’
– Select ‘Branch in new chat’
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This will create a new conversation thread that will contain all the context from the original chat up to the branching out point, while letting users revisit the original conversation without any changes.
The latest update to ChatGPT has been welcomed by several X users, with some drawing comparisons to Git, a version control system that lets programmers create separate branches of code to test changes without affecting the main codebase.
A 2024 study had found that linear dialogue interfaces for large language models (LLMs) could increase cognitive load and reduce efficiency among users as they are forced to “repeatedly compare, modify, and copy previous content.” LLMs with such interfaces poorly serve scenarios involving “multiple layers, and many subtasks—such as brainstorming, structured knowledge learning, and large project analysis,” it added.
Recently, the Microsoft-backed AI startup also announced that it is working on a new AI-powered jobs platform to take on the likes of LinkedIn. In a blog post, Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s CEO of Applications, said that the new platform will make use of “AI to help find the perfect matches between what companies need and what workers can offer.”
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Simo also said that the company is working with partners like John Deere and Walmart, professional service firms like Accenture and Boston Consulting Group, community organisations, and even governments as part of its latest project to help people find jobs more easily using AI.
