10 Hacks Every ChatGPT User Should Know

If you're a regular ChatGPT user, then you're one of a crowd that's now around 900 million people strong. It seems that plenty of us are spending significant amounts of time with the AI chatbot, whether that's to get more done, search the web, work on creative or coding projects, or just have something to talk to. Are you making the most out of ChatGPT though? The web, mobile, and desktop apps come with a selection of settings and some prompt adjustment possibilities that you may not have fully explored yet. Here's how to level up.

Use 'branch conversations' to explore tangents off your chats

OpenAI often rolls out minor but useful upgrades to ChatGPT that can get missed, and one of those is branch conversations. They quite literally let you branch off from one conversation and start another, while leaving the original chat preserved so you can go back to it if you need to (and maybe start another branch). It's a simple way to go off on a tangent with a discussion. Click or tap the three dots at the end of any ChatGPT response and you'll see the Branch in new chat option. A new chat is then created, based on the first.

Trick ChatGPT into returning shorter, more effective results

The internet is awash with ChatGPT prompt "hacks" of varying quality and effectiveness, and they all really boil down to the specificity of the instructions you're giving the AI. From the length of the responses to the data format they're outputted in, tell ChatGPT what you want in precise terms, and it will oblige.

One of the best of these prompt hacks I've seen lately is from u/AdCold1610 on Reddit, and all you have to do is put "extremely lazy person here" somewhere in the prompt. It often has quite a profound effect on the response: Answers get shorter and to the point, and if there are instructions involved they become simpler and more straightforward. You get less fluff and more action in general, though obviously how much impact the lazy prompt has will vary on what you're asking of the AI.

Use Voice Mode to record memos or thoughts

You may well have seen the little sound wave icon down in the bottom right corner of the ChatGPT prompt box and given Voice Mode a try, without really knowing how to make use of it or why it works better than typing in your prompts. One potentially helpful idea, though, is to use it as a voice memo recorder for stuff you need to get done; another is to use it as an audio-based personal journal for thoughts and reflections. You can keep them all together in one chat, or spread them out.

There's no shortage of mobile apps that will record audio clips for you, but they don't come with ChatGPT's AI analysis brain attached. Once you've built up a library of recordings, you can get it to prioritize your to do list, remind you about something you've forgotten, summarize the main themes of your reflections, sum up your mood changes over the week, or whatever else you can think of.

Use "Personalization" to tailor ChatGPT's answers towards your interests

You can tailor the answers ChatGPT gives you by telling it more about yourself: what you know about a certain topic, how you best absorb information, how verbose or succinct you'd like the AI's responses to be, and so on. But entering these details for each and every prompt can get tiresome quickly.

There's actually a place to put details like this in ChatGPT's settings, as long as you open the panel on the web or desktop: Click your account profile avatar (bottom left), then choose Personalization.The next screen not only lets you set some guidelines for the personality ChatGPT should use by default, it also lets you tell the AI a bit about yourself—which it will keep permanently in its memory. You can add details including your occupation, your ethical values, your preferred learning style, and your main interests.

Use Photoshop to edit photos within ChatGPT for free

ChatGPT comes with mini-apps you can connect to via the prompt box, and one of those apps happens to be Photoshop—meaning you can carry out some pretty advanced edits using Adobe's software technology, free of charge.

The plug-in is currently available in all the ChatGPT apps except Android and Windows. Pick Apps from the navigation pane, then search for "Photoshop" and click Connect to add it to your ChatGPT tools. You can then call it into action via the + (plus) button in the prompt box, or by typing "@" in your prompt followed by the app name.

With Photoshop enabled, you can perform all kinds of edits: blur backgrounds, remove objects, and tweak brightness and contrast, for example. Just use the same natural language as you would in any ChatGPT conversation. You do need to upload an image to edit, or provide a public web link to one. If you don't do this before you submit your prompt, you'll be asked to do it after.

Use your phone camera for live help

ChatGPT for Android and iOS comes with a superpower: access to your phone's camera, so you can feed it photos in real time as you explore the world and go about the business of daily life. Just tap the + (plus) button by the prompt box, then Camera.

Even if you've realized the feature is there, you might not have realized how much you can do with it. It'll translate signs in a foreign language for you, identify movies and TV shows from images posted to social media, pick out the route you need to take from a picture of a timetable or transit map, and explain what's in a particular dish on a menu.

Ask ChatGPT for questions rather than answers

Back to a bit of prompt hacking: Another trick that I've used a lot recently was taken from Reviewracoon on Medium. It's a debugging prompt, which means you don't ask for answers; instead, you ask ChatGPT for questions that are going to help you get to the answers yourself.

This works best when reviewing your own writing, code, or ideas. For a draft of a short story, for example, you might say: "Don't tell me what's wrong and how to fix it. Instead, act like a detective, asking questions that will help me figure out how to improve it." What you'll get back will encourage you to review the thinking around your own process, what you're trying to achieve, and why you've taken the approaches you have.

Use temporary chats to run ChatGPT in incognito mode

Another feature you might not have come across is the very handy temporary chat tool, which works like an incognito mode for ChatGPT. Nothing in this chat will be saved—it'll be instantly forgotten as soon as you close it. To start a temporary chat, open up a new chat and then click or tap the dashed speech bubble up in the top right corner.

Reduce your messaging limits to block ads in ChatGPT Free

If you're on the Free or Go tiers of ChatGPT, you're going to see ads by default to help pay OpenAI's data center bills, but there is a way to remove them: You just have to put up with lower usage limits in return.

Get to your profile page by clicking or tapping on your username, then select Ads controls > Change plan to go ad-free > Reduce message limits to make the change. (You can reverse it any time you like.) OpenAI doesn't actually specify how restrictive this will be in terms of a daily message allowance, but it's an option you can try out. The other ways to remove ads are to switch to a Plus, Pro, Business, or Enterprise account (starting from $20 per month), or to register for an Education account. These subscriptions come with other benefits too, including access to smarter models.

Use 'Study and learn' mode to pick up new skills and concepts

You can employ ChatGPT as a learning tool in all kinds of ways, but there is a specific Study and learn mode built right in. OpenAI describes it as "a learning experience that helps you work through problems step by step instead of just getting an answer".

To enable it, tap or click the + (plus) button on the prompt box, then choose Study and learn (it might be behind a More menu). Specify the topic you want to learn, and submit the prompt to get started with your tutoring session. ChatGPT may ask you some clarification questions so the bot can narrow down its teaching material.

What you'll get next is a blend of information and questions to test your knowledge: ChatGPT will mark your answers as you go, then adapt the learning experience to meet you where you currently are.