Multiple usability regressions in macOS ChatGPT desktop app #32890

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

26.707.62119

What subscription do you have?

Plus

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.5.0 arm64 arm

What issue are you seeing?

After updating to the latest macOS ChatGPT desktop app, I encountered several usability issues that significantly impact productivity.

1. Dock icon behaviour
   Clicking the ChatGPT Dock icon opens or focuses the main window instead of returning to the currently active chat window. This makes it difficult to work with detached chat windows.

2. Drag & Drop
   Dragging screenshots into an existing chat often causes the main ChatGPT window to come to the front, interrupting the workflow. The image drop target becomes difficult to use because the main window gets in the way.

3. Thinking/response feedback
   The app no longer consistently shows that ChatGPT is processing a request. Occasionally, a prompt appears to have been accepted, but no response is displayed for an extended period, making it unclear whether the request is still running or has stalled.

4. Window management
   Working with multiple chat windows is less intuitive than in previous versions. The application does not reliably return focus to the active conversation, requiring workarounds such as Mission Control.

5. General responsiveness
   Compared with previous versions, the UI feels less responsive during long conversations involving multiple image uploads. I also experienced repeated delays and timeouts while using the Edge web interface, even before uploading any images.

Impact:
I use ChatGPT for technical engineering work involving frequent screenshots and iterative workflows (for example, Blender CAD modelling and rendering). These regressions noticeably reduce productivity and interrupt an otherwise efficient workflow. I hope these issues can be addressed in a future update.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Explained in detail above.

What is the expected behavior?

The expected behaviour should be as in the previous release. If I am working in a secondary window, the interaction should not be disrupted by the main window. When ChatGPT is working, I should be able to see that it is doing something, as I can still see in the browser version, and finally, I should always receive a prompt back when the operation is completed, and there is an output.

Additional information

No response