GUIDE
About five minutes. When you are done, ChatGPT can search and summarise your WhatsApp conversations instead of you scrolling through a phone. It reads your messages; it cannot send them.
Custom MCP connectors in ChatGPT are still a developer mode feature, and OpenAI keeps moving where the setting lives. The steps below are right at the time of writing, but trust what you see on screen over what you read here. Claude's version of this is more settled if you have both.
Server URL, for step 4
https://mcp.whatsync.app/mcpIn ChatGPT on the web, open Settings and turn on Developer mode. OpenAI has moved this control around between releases, so if it is not where you expect, search the settings for developer mode. It has also lived under Connectors and under Apps.
Still in settings, go to the connectors list. With developer mode on, an option to add your own appears alongside the ones OpenAI ships.
Choose to create a custom connector and give it a name, such as WhatSync. The description matters more than it looks: ChatGPT reads it when deciding whether to use the connector, so say that it reads WhatsApp conversations.
Enter https://mcp.whatsync.app/mcp as the MCP server URL and save.
ChatGPT sends you through a sign-in the first time. Use the WhatSync account whose messages you want to read.
Open a new conversation, pick the connector from the tools or plus menu, and ask your first question. ChatGPT asks permission before it reaches for your messages.
“What did I promise this customer about delivery?”
“Which conversations from last week never got a reply?”
“Summarise everything we discussed with Acme before the renewal call.”
“Find every chat where somebody asked about the price.”
“Draft a follow-up to this customer based on what we already agreed.”
“What are people asking us most often this month?”
ChatGPT inherits the access of the WhatSync account you signed in with. Connecting it never widens what somebody can read.
| What ChatGPT can do | Member | Admin |
|---|---|---|
| Read your own conversations | Yes | Yes |
| Search across your own chats | Yes | Yes |
| Read a teammate's conversations | No | Yes |
| List everyone who has connected WhatsApp | No | Yes |
| Read the shared team inbox | No | Yes |
| Find attachment captions and document names | Yes | Yes |
| Search inside documents or images | No | No |
| Transcribe and search voice notes | No | No |
| Chats you excluded with the number filter | No | No |
| Send a WhatsApp message | No | No |
It is web only, so it will not appear in the mobile apps. If you are on a Business, Enterprise or Edu workspace, an admin controls it under workspace permissions and may have it switched off. On those plans, only admins can create and publish custom connectors.
Two usual causes. It is not selected in that conversation, or the description you gave it is too vague for the model to know when it applies. Rewrite the description to say plainly that it reads WhatsApp conversations.
Check the URL for a typo. The server has to be a public HTTPS endpoint, which ours is, so the failure is nearly always a mistyped address or a sign-in that did not finish.
Check whether that number is excluded by your number filter, or whether the chat is a group you never ticked for group sync. The agent can only read what already syncs.
The same server works there, and the setup is a little simpler.