Tired of ChatGPT sounding way too cheerful or dumping emojis everywhere? OpenAI rolled out new granular ChatGPT personality controls that let users fine-tune how it sounds and formats answers, without changing the underlying model’s reasoning. These controls sit in a revamped Personalization menu and apply across web, desktop, and mobile apps.
The new controls add dropdowns where you can independently adjust traits like warmth, enthusiasm, and emoji usage, each with options such as “More,” “Less,” or “Default.” You can also steer how ChatGPT structures responses, nudging it toward more headers and lists or simpler paragraph-style replies. OpenAI says these tweaks only affect presentation and tone, not accuracy or reasoning in models like GPT-5.1 and GPT-5.2.
The update builds on the personality presets introduced with GPT-5.1, which now include options like Default, Friendly, Efficient, Professional, Candid, Quirky, Nerdy, and Cynical. You can pick a base personality, like Efficient or Nerdy, and then further refine it with the new trait controls to get a more tailored voice. These settings layer on top of existing custom instructions, so users can combine what ChatGPT should focus on with how it speaks.
Why ChatGPT Personality Controls Matter
OpenAI frames this as a quality-of-life upgrade, especially for power users and businesses that want a consistent style across long sessions or teams. The feature also responds to complaints that ChatGPT can be too cheerful, verbose, or emoji-heavy, giving people a way to dial that back. However, early reactions are mixed. Some users like the control, while others worry that strong personalities like Cynical can subtly influence perceived advice or mood.
For Android and iOS users, this means you get a consistent personality across phone, desktop, and browser, which matters if you use ChatGPT as a daily assistant. Real scenarios include making ChatGPT more formal for work email drafts, more friendly for learning, or ultra-concise for coding help. The controls position ChatGPT closer to deeply personalized AI copilots on Android, hinting at how similar knobs could show up in phone-level assistants or on-device models.
