Quick chat doesn't work in the new ChatGPT/Codex desktop app on Mac

Resolved 💬 3 comments Opened Jul 29, 2026 by alexdernie Closed Jul 30, 2026

💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?

26.721.81911

What subscription do you have?

Pro

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.5.0 arm64 arm

What issue are you seeing?

I use the quick chat window all the time - the small popup window that opens on hotkey for quick questions. Since the update where Codex and ChatGPT were merged it hasn't worked. I'm using the "new" ChatGTP app. The "old" ChatGPT Classic app did continue to work to fire the quick chat window, but now I've uninstalled it it doesn't work in the new app. I assume it's this hotkey:

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Feedback ID: 019fad29-567a-7a02-ae20-9fd1d1f1ea2c

What is the expected behavior?

Open the mini window at the bottom of the screen, from anywhere, to ask ChatGPT a question

Additional information

_No response_

View original on GitHub ↗

3 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 29 days ago

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

#35158

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alexdernie · 29 days ago

My mistake - for anyone else struggling, this is called _Popout window hotkey_ and does work, just needs a hotkey assigned to it first

DavsterTheNoob · 1 day ago

Well, hang on, cos there IS a bug here it seems, or at least _confusing af_ behaviour right now that doesn't seem adequately explained.

In the shortcuts page, there's no info at all about whether a shortcut applies to or works in the different modes. Some are obviously Codex-focussed, others not-so-much.

The quick chat feature for example, the thing that @alexdernie was originally talking about - why is that only in "codex" mode? It just silently fails if you're outside of that. Then, the 'popout in new window' shortcut doesn't work on quick chat at all - so, the popout quick chat feature is only accessible by... Switch to Codex mode (shortcut possible, default is ^3) -> New Quick Chat button (shortcut possible once in Codex mode, option+shift+n, the rest of the time it just fails silently) -> "Open chat in new window" button top-right of quick chat window (_no_ shortcut).

If you set a shortcut for increasing/decreasing reasoning levels, it _doesn't work in the chat mode chats_. wtf is that?

Why the heck is there a "send message" shortcut that reads as _unassigned_!? Assign it, and it doesn't seem to change anything.

There's a shortcut for "open in new window" but that only opens a whole new full-on ChatGPT window.

Given that literally everything about the quick chat works _just fine_ in work mode, _except for opening it_, it really seems like a bug. Switch to codex, open quick chat, go back to Work mode, it works fine. If you click "add to codex" in the quick chat, whether as part of the popup within the main window, or its own window, it even adds it to the current active chat whether its codex or Work. Literally makes no sense.

And just wtf is the point in 'side chat' anyway guys, you can't even set the side chat to use the 'chat' mode - that's only the 'quick chat'. When you close it it disappears and is lost forever - but you could have just burnt 20m of 5.6 Ultra use. There's 'temporary chat' for that - just, what the heck is the point lol, side chat just seems the worst of both worlds.

And, the find-a-shortcut feature that lets you press the combination and the shortcut assigned to it pops up (which is a great feature to include) has some major design flaws:

If you clear the shortcut, it instantly is filtered out of the results so you can't rebind it meaning you have to go and find it again. Given that the same shortcut can only be assigned to one thing at a time anyway, this really seems bizarre.
Once you've found a shortcut via that filter, if you disengage the key-press filter, the found shortcut doesn't remain in position it just drops back to the full list and you have to go hunting for it. Utterly infuriating.
if you find, on a filtered list either via command name or by key-press, that there's a clash... it doesn't let you clear or overwrite the clash from where you are, meaning you have to remember the name that shows up, go and change or clear _that_ command, and _then_ come back.

Shortcuts feature is _very_ messy rn.
____

And then, separately, the "Popout window hotkey" button opens a popup window that _kinda_ looks like the old option+spacebar ChatGPT Classic feature, but, for some reason they've made it so it can't use the 'chat' mode.

Seems a _very_ bizarre choice - why on earth would you want to open a popup chat like that, that starts a new _agentic_ thread...? It doesn't seem to let you open the currently active chat as a popout, even. Just, what the heck is the point, honestly. It doesn't support 'work with apps' like the Classic one, even. It doesn't seem to stay on top. You can't seem to toggle it on and off for easy access. It's just... worse.

Imo the popout window should work like the ChatGPT Classic one, but updated with the latest model controls (reasoning levels etc).