In brief: Well, that didn't take long. Less than a week after launch, Sora, the hyper-realistic AI video generation app from OpenAI has surged to the top of Apple's App Store rankings, besting rivals including Google Gemini and ChatGPT.
Bill Peebles, head of the Sora project at OpenAI, announced the achievement on X on Friday. In the post, he said his team is listening to feedback and iterating fast, and promised that more invite codes would be sent soon.
Sora 2.0 debuted earlier this week as a free download on the iOS App Store. The app allows users to easily create realistic videos complete with audio that synchronizes perfectly with on-screen content. Videos can be created using simple text prompts or sampled from existing content. A new feature called Cameos even lets people insert themselves and their friends into the action.
sora is number 1 in the app store! it's been epic to see what the collective creativity of humanity is capable of so far.
team is iterating fast and listening to feedback. feel free to drop us feature requests!
(we're sending more invite codes soon, i promise!) pic.twitter.com/Cq1dbKes2V – Bill Peebles (@billpeeb) October 3, 2025
The latest version of Sora represents a pivotal milestone in content creation. Up until now, most AI-generated video featured obvious tells that what you were looking at wasn't genuine. With the new Sora app and others that'll no doubt follow in the near future, the line between real and imaginary is getting very blurry. Soon, it could be nearly impossible for the average onlooker to determine if what they are watching is genuine or make-believe.
OpenAI said it conducted extensive safety testing leading up to the app's launch to prevent abuse. Guardrails include "layered defenses" against topics such as terrorist propaganda, self-harm promotion, and sexual material. OpenAI also has automated systems in place that can scan source content against their global usage policies, and scans generated audio output to detect for copyright infringement.
Sora is technically invite-only, so you'll have to wait for the company to send you an access code to use it. It is available now for free on the App Store in the US and Canada. We're told that expansion to addition markets is in the cards, and a version for Android is also coming soon.
Image credit: Ivan Samkov