OpenAI has expanded access to its fast-rising AI video platform, Sora, by launching the app for Android devices, marking a major milestone in the company’s growing dominance across the generative media landscape.
The rollout, announced on Tuesday, makes the app available on the Google Play Store in seven countries — the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam — extending OpenAI’s reach to millions of new users across Asia and North America.
The company first debuted Sora on Apple devices in September, where it became an overnight sensation. Within five days, the app surpassed 1 million downloads, dominating the App Store’s free chart for nearly three weeks. It remains among the top-ranked apps globally, holding the No. 5 position on Apple’s free app list as of this week — just behind Google’s Gemini at No. 4 and OpenAI’s own ChatGPT, which remains the most downloaded free app on the platform.
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According to Bill Peebles, head of Sora at OpenAI, the expansion to Android marks “the next step in making creative AI tools universally accessible.” In a post on X, Peebles confirmed that the company is working on extending access to Europe, with launches expected to follow after regional regulatory approval.
The Sora app allows users to generate short videos using only text prompts, powered by OpenAI’s multimodal models capable of understanding and rendering complex visual scenes. The app also includes a shared social feed, allowing users to post, remix, and interact with AI-generated videos — a format reminiscent of TikTok, which has helped fuel its viral appeal among younger audiences and creators.
Initially launched as an invite-only application to manage early demand and moderate content, OpenAI has since opened access to the public for a limited time, signaling growing confidence in the platform’s stability and safety systems. The company said the gradual rollout is intended to balance user growth with ethical safeguards against misuse, including impersonation and deepfake content.
Sora’s viral success is seen as a reflection of OpenAI’s evolving strategy to diversify beyond its text-based products such as ChatGPT and DALL·E. With Sora, OpenAI is positioning itself as a creative media powerhouse, capable of transforming how videos, advertisements, and entertainment content are produced. The company has been actively building an ecosystem of AI tools that appeal not just to developers and businesses but to a broader audience of consumers and creators.
The timing of Sora’s expansion coincides with intensifying competition in the AI-generated video space, as rivals like Runway, Pika Labs, and Stability AI race to release similar models. OpenAI’s established brand reputation and its integration with ChatGPT and DALL·E give it a strong competitive edge, allowing users to generate text, images, and videos all within the same creative ecosystem.
Analysts also point out that Sora’s expansion comes amid OpenAI’s broader commercial pivot — a strategy aimed at achieving profitability after years of heavy investment in model training and infrastructure. By releasing standalone, consumer-facing apps, it is believed that OpenAI is gradually transforming from a research-driven organization into a full-fledged tech platform competing directly with global players like Google, Meta, and Anthropic.
The launch on Android also expands OpenAI’s access to markets where Android dominates smartphone usage, particularly across Asia, where billions of users rely on Google’s mobile ecosystem. Analysts believe this move could exponentially increase Sora’s user base and generate valuable data to improve its models’ video understanding and creative capabilities.
The company has not disclosed its future monetization plans for Sora, though experts suggest that premium features or subscription tiers could follow once the app stabilizes. With its text-to-video engine, TikTok-style sharing interface, and growing global footprint, Sora is shaping up to be one of OpenAI’s most ambitious ventures yet — and a key player in defining the future of AI-generated entertainment.