Sora 2 is here, “marking a giant leap forward in realism,” claims OpenAI. And it includes sound and dialogue generation, catching up to Google’s Veo 3. Coming nearly two years after Sora was first introduced, the new model is being released in conjunction with a free iOS social app with a vertical feed and “swipe-and-scroll” functionality like TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. Available in the U.S. and Canada, the fee version — which currently requires an invitation — is also available at sora.com. ChatGPT Pro subscribers can access an experimental, higher quality Sora 2 Pro model online only.

“Users can upload short clips of themselves and insert them into Sora-generated worlds, describing the idea, style and scene they want to see,” writes The Wall Street Journal, noting that they can also use the app to “connect with other users, watching and commenting on their content.”

OpenAI calls the ability to map your face, or those of your friends onto characters into Sora-created worlds known as “cameos,” explaining in a news post that “with cameos, you can drop yourself straight into any Sora scene with remarkable fidelity after a short one-time video-and-audio recording in the app to verify your identity and capture your likeness.”

Emphasizing that Sora 2 is “launching responsibly,” the company says “concerns about doomscrolling, addiction, isolation, and RL-sloptimized feeds” have prompted it to develop its own recommendation algorithms that users will be able to personalize using natural language. “Instead of maximizing time spent scrolling, the app prioritizes discovery of videos likely to inspire creation,” VentureBeat reports.

The app includes parental controls via ChatGPT and features such as “default limits on how many generations teens can see per day in the feed” and “stricter permissions on cameos” for underage users.

During its free period, Sora 2 will be offered “with generous limits to start so people can freely explore its capabilities, though these are still subject to compute constraints,” OpenAI explains. Eventually, the company “plans to offer optional paid tiers for generating extra videos when demand is high,” notes VentureBeat.

After downloading the Sora app at the App Store, users whose access requests are granted will receive four codes, so they can invite friends, says CNET, sharing information OpenAI provided during a live-streamed announcement.

Those who plan on using sora.com can check invite availability on OpenAI’s official Discord channel and look for push notifications when logged in to ChatGPT.

Code resale listings already appearing, but OpenAI says to avoid those, as its terms of service forbid it. OpenAI will be expanding access over time.

Related:
Sam Altman Is Squaring Off Against Hollywood with the New Sora, Business Insider, 9/30/25
OpenAI Made a TikTok for Deepfakes, and It’s Getting Hard to Tell What’s Real, The Verge, 10/1/25
OpenAI’s New Social App Is Filled with Terrifying Sam Altman Deepfakes, TechCrunch, 10/1/25
OpenAI’s New Social Media App Will Be All AI Videos, Thanks to New Sora 2 Model, CNET, 9/30/25