By Ken Muthomi - Reporter
Kenya, 8 May 2026 - OpenAI has rolled out ‘Trusted Contact,’ a new optional safety feature in ChatGPT aimed at supporting adults during serious mental health crises.
The tech company says that the new feature will enable a user to nominate someone, such as a friend, family member, or caregiver, who will be notified if the system detects that the user may have discussed harming themselves with the chatbot.
The new feature was engineered with the guidance of clinicians, researchers, and organizations that specialize in mental health and suicide prevention.
To access the feature, users must add one adult (18+ globally or 19+ in South Korea) as their Trusted Contact in their ChatGPT settings. That person will then receive a notification.
The notification will explain to the individual their role and will be required to accept the invitation within one week for the feature to be activated.
If our automated monitoring systems detect that the user may be talking about self-harm in any way, ChatGPT will let the user know that it may send a notification to the trusted contact and also encourage the user to reach out to their Trusted Contact with suggested conversation starters.
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If the situation is determined to be a serious safety concern, ChatGPT will send the Trusted Contact a brief notification by email, text message, or in-app notification if they have a ChatGPT account.
OpenAI has, however, noted that the notification will have limited details and the contact will not have access to the full details of the chats or transcripts. Instead, they will receive the general reason that self-harm came up in a potentially concerning way, encouraging the Trusted Contact to check in.
“While no system is perfect, and a notification to a Trusted Contact may not always reflect exactly what someone is experiencing, every notification undergoes trained human review before it is sent, and we strive to review these safety notifications in under one hour,” the company stated.
The new feature is set to complement the layers of safeguards to support people in distress, such as encouraging users to contact crisis hotlines and emergency services when appropriate.
It will be very similar to the already existing parental control safety notification, which allows parents and guardians to receive alerts when there are signs of acute distress for a linked teen account.