MCP Introduces a new standard for interactive AI interfaces
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) community has introduced a new proposal called “MCP Apps” that aims to standardize how interactive user interfaces are built and shown inside AI assistants.
This matters because interactive components already existed in practice, but there wasn’t a common MCP-level standard for them.
What was possible before, and what was missing
Up to now, you could see interactive UI inside assistants, but each platform did it its own way:
- OpenAI introduced its own system through the Apps SDK, where developers build UI components using React, and those components run inside ChatGPT.
- At the same time, the community built MCP-UI, an early open approach to deliver interactive HTML components over MCP.
The problem was simple: these approaches weren’t officially part of MCP itself, so developers had to adapt to different systems depending on the assistant or host.
What MCP apps changes
The new MCP Apps proposal brings a shared direction: it defines an official way for MCP servers to send interactive UI blocks that any compatible assistant can render safely.
In other words:
Before: interactive components existed, but every host had its own “dialect”.
Now: MCP is moving toward one common standard so components can be built once and work across MCP clients.
Why it matters
For users, this is a step toward assistants that feel more like real apps, with buttons, forms, and visual mini-screens instead of text-only replies.
For developers, it removes fragmentation: no more rebuilding the same UI differently for each assistant, since MCP Apps aims to make interactive UI a first-class feature of the protocol.
The proposal is still in draft form, but it clearly signals where MCP is headed next: interactive AI experiences, standardized and portable.
At GPTApps, we’ll be adopting this new MCP Apps approach in our MCP server projects, so any client who wants to build an application for AI assistants can rely on a single, standardized way to deliver interactive components across hosts. If you’re exploring an MCP-based app or want help bringing your content and services to AI assistants like Gemini or ChatGPT, you can reach out via our contact page.