Use the three-dot menu to branch a conversation.
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Over the past few years, we haven’t had to wait long for the launch of new ChatGPT features, and the latest upgrade pushed out by OpenAI is the ability to branch conversation. This means you can steer your chats with the language bot in a different direction, and then return to where you started to continue the main thread of the conversation.
According to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the feature had been introduced by popular request, and it’s not difficult to imagine ways in which it could be useful. Think if it like being able to create threads on Slack or Discord—you can follow tangents and related ideas without cluttering up the main conversation.
How to branch conversations in ChatGPT
Branch conversations open up in a new tab.
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As of this writing, you can only create branch conversations in the ChatGPT web app (though they can be read and added to from any device). While they can be used by both paid and free users, you do need to be signed in to see the feature.
In any of your conversations with ChatGPT, click the three dots at the end of a response, then choose Branch in new chat. A copy of the current conversation will open up in a new browser tab, and you’ll see an extra chat in the navigation pane on the left, with “Branch” added to the start of its name.
You’re then able to keep both conversations going at the same time by switching between browser tabs (or clicking between the chats on the left). The two chats will be the same up until the point where you started the branch chat; from there, you can take the conversations in whatever direction you like.
OpenAI hasn’t implemented this in a particularly elegant way, and the chats you’ve opened can quickly get unwieldy if you’re doing a lot of branching. To help bring a bit of order you can rename chats, or delete them if you’re sure you don’t need them—click the three dots next to a chat in the navigation pane, or in the top right corner when a chat is open, to find these options.
You can also make use of ChatGPT Projects to put your chats in different folders that are kept separate from each other. Your branched conversations all stay in the same project, though you can create new projects and move chats between them as needed.
How branching chats can be useful
You’ll need to keep on top of all your branches.
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There are all kinds of ways branch conversations could be useful, and you may well find that different ideas for new threads come to you as you interact with ChatGPT. There’s no right or wrong way to use them, and if a thread doesn’t work out, you can simply delete it and go back to where you were.
What do you think so far?
Say you’re composing an email to your boss, telling them you can’t stand to work another second under their management—but in a polite way. You can use multiple branch conversations to test out the phrasing using different tones and approaches, without having the same text repeated again and again in one chat.
If you’re researching your favorite literary masterpieces, you can go off on a tangent about one particular book or play in different chats, and still keep your main central conversation concentrated on overarching themes and ideas.
There are also obvious use cases for coders. Branched conversations let you test out separate debugging strategies or design ideas simultaneously in different browser tabs—and there’s always the option of retracing your steps and going back to where the branches first started.
You could even use branches to supply ChatGPT with the same basic blocks of information, then get it to answer the same questions but in different tones, using different lengths of response, or with any other variation.
