AI Tool of the Week: this ChatGPT feature can read beyond what’s visible on your screen

Summary

Appshots lets ChatGPT capture what’s on your screen and extract text directly from the active app, helping you query long documents and spreadsheets without screenshotting, saving or attaching files.

The AI tool we unlocked today is: Appshots, a ChatGPT desktop app feature

What problem does it solve?

You are deep in a spreadsheet or a policy document, and need AI's help with exactly what is in front of you. So you describe it in words, slow and imprecise for anything numeric. Or you take a screenshot, save, and attach it manually, breaking focus each time.

Yet, a screenshot only shows what fits inside the visible window, so anything scrolled out of view never reaches the AI.

This is where Appshots changes things. One hotkey captures two layers of your active window at once: a visual image of what is on screen, and the actual text the app exposes internally, including content you have not scrolled to yet. ChatGPT reads structured content pulled directly from the app, not just a picture of your screen.

How to access

Available now in the ChatGPT desktop app on macOS and Windows.

What can it do?

• See beyond the screen: Pulls in text the app has not scrolled into view, not just what is visible
• Get real answers, not guesses: Works from extracted text, not an AI's visual read of an image
• Stay in flow: One hotkey replaces screenshotting, saving, and attaching

Example

An HR manager needs a quick answer from a long policy document, with a clause many pages down. Here's how it plays out:

• Trigger the capture: With the document open, press the left and right Command keys together on macOS, or left and right Alt keys together on Windows
• The open app screenshot shows directly on ChatGPT’s app prompt box.
• Prompt the content: Type "What does this policy say about remote work eligibility?" and ChatGPT searches the full extracted text
• Request the format: Ask it to "summarize the answer in two lines"
• Switch context: Take a second appshot of a related document, and ChatGPT compares both

Jaspreet Bindra