Claude Cowork is coming to mobile and the web with background tasks

Claude Cowork is coming to smartphones and the web, Anthropic has announced.

Beta access will begin rolling out over the next few weeks, starting with Max subscribers before expanding to other plans.

Claude Cowork is a mode that lets users assign a task to the AI and have it work across files, calendars, email, messaging apps, the web, and connected tools until the job is complete.

• The biggest change is that tasks will no longer stop when users close their laptops. A session can be started on a computer, checked from a smartphone, and continued in a browser or the Claude app for iOS and Android.

• Cowork will also be able to run in the background. For example, Claude could prepare materials ahead of a meeting by analyzing emails, call transcripts, and recent news, then compiling a briefing and drafting a follow-up email.
• Final decisions will remain with the user. If Claude needs clarification or approval, it will ask, and completed materials will not be sent without confirmation.

Anthropic says Cowork is used for far more than coding. According to the company, more than 90% of use cases are unrelated to software development, with users most often turning to it for office tasks and work involving documents, reports, presentations, and contracts.

The desktop version will remain the most capable version of Cowork, as it can work with local files and the browser. To mark the expansion, Anthropic has extended Cowork’s doubled usage limits through August 5.