New 5.1 UI behavior? GPT-output lane becomes non-selectable unless forcing “Select Text” mode (Android)


I noticed a strange UI behavior on the Android ChatGPT app (5.1) that I haven’t seen before in any rollout.

GPT-generated messages suddenly became non-selectable
unless I explicitly enter “Select Text” mode first.

Normally, user messages and GPT messages are selectable in the same way.
But now it feels like GPT output has been moved into a different UI rendering lane.

🧪 What I observed

  • Tapping on a GPT message shows no selection handles
  • Long-pressing offers only high-level options (“Copy”, “Select Text”, etc.)
  • Only after choosing “Select Text” do the selection handles appear
  • This applies only to GPT output, not user messages

Screenshots showing the behavior (Android app):
🔗 https://imgur.com/a/Pwg91qB

📎 Hypothesis

This might be a new UI-layer separation for GPT output —
a container split or safe-rendering lane introduced in the 5.1 wave.

If so, this is the first time I’ve seen GPT messages become functionally isolated from the rest of the chat UI.

❓ Anyone else seeing this?

  • Is this happening on your Android app?
  • Is it an intentional safety layer?
  • A rendering bug?
  • Or a silent UI experiment rolling out?

Curious to hear if others can reproduce it.

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