OpenAI Launches Sora iOS App Alongside Sora 2 Video Model via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

OpenAI launched the Sora iOS app, beginning an invite-based rollout in the United States and Canada.

With Sora, OpenAI appears to be releasing its first non-ChatGPT consumer app and its first social product.

The app runs on the newly released Sora 2 model for video and synchronized audio.

What’s The Sora App?

Sora is positioned as a creation-first social experience rather than a public-broadcast platform.

It adds social features on top of Sora 2’s generation capabilities, including tools to remix videos and collaborate with friends inside the app.

Custom Feed

The app uses OpenAI’s language models to power a recommender algorithm that accepts natural language instructions.

Users can customize their feed through conversational commands rather than buried settings menus.

By default, the feed prioritizes content from people users follow or interact with.

The Sora team wrote:

“We are not optimizing for time spent in feed, and we explicitly designed the app to maximize creation, not consumption.”

Cameos

Sora centers on “cameos,” which let you place yourself or friends inside AI-generated scenes after a short one-time video and audio capture in the app.

OpenAI says people who appear in cameos control who can use their likeness and can revoke access or remove any video that includes it.

Content Creation

Beyond cameos and feed browsing, the app lets users create original videos through text prompts and remix other users’ generations.

The underlying Sora 2 model can follow multi-shot instructions, maintain world state across scenes, and generate synchronized dialogue and sound effects.

ChatGPT Pro subscribers can access an experimental higher-quality Sora 2 Pro model on sora.com, with app access planned.

The original Sora 1 Turbo remains available, and existing user content stays in personal libraries.

Monetization

OpenAI plans to keep Sora free initially, with generation limits determined by available compute resources.

The company’s revenue strategy involves charging users for extra generations when demand surpasses capacity. No plans for advertising or creator revenue sharing have been announced.

Availability

The app operates on an invite-only basis, with sign-ups available through the iOS app. The App Store listing is live.

Image Credit: Apple App Store

OpenAI says it made Sora invite-only to ensure users arrive with friends already in the app. The company cites feedback indicating that cameos drive the experience, making existing connections essential.

Looking Ahead

For marketers and creators, Sora serves as a new platform for distributing short, AI-generated videos, affirming OpenAI’s focus on developing consumer-oriented tools.

Sora’s adoption will largely depend on accessibility, real-world applications, and how well the feed encourages active creation instead of passive viewing.

Featured Image: Robert Way/Shutterstock