Anthropic has detailed how its agentic assistant Claude Cowork now runs across desktop, web, mobile, and the Claude in Chrome side panel, with sessions and files synced through the cloud. The feature is in beta on web and mobile for Pro, Max, and Team plans, and on Enterprise plans where an admin has enabled it. The Chrome side panel is available on Max and Team plans, rolling out to Pro, and on enabled Enterprise plans.
On desktop, web, and mobile, chat and Cowork share one home: users select "Cowork" in the message box to start a task, then switch back to "Chat" for regular conversation. The Chrome side panel works differently — opening it launches a Cowork session directly, with no selector. Cloud sessions run on Anthropic's servers, so work continues in the background when a laptop is closed, scheduled tasks execute with no device online, and the same sessions and files are reachable from any surface.
What's new
- Desktop (macOS, Windows, Linux): Full Cowork experience including local file access, browser use, and computer use. Requires the latest Claude Desktop app.
- Web (claude.ai): Start, steer, and review tasks; resume sessions; connectors, skills, plugins; preview files; scheduled tasks; projects. Local file access, browser use, and computer use work through the desktop app when it is open.
- Mobile (iOS, Android): Same cloud capabilities as web. Local file access, browser use, and computer use route through the desktop app when it is running.
- Chrome side panel: Direct Cowork session on Max/Team (Pro rolling out, Enterprise when enabled). Can read the active tab without the desktop app; driving a browser as part of a task still requires the desktop app.
Live artifacts — interactive previews of generated spreadsheets, slides, and documents — are available on the desktop app only. Projects tied to a local folder support Cowork sessions on desktop only, and Cowork does not modify a project's contents automatically. Computer use remains a research preview for Pro and Max plans.
Why it matters
The cross-surface continuity means a user can start a research task in the Chrome side panel while viewing a dashboard, continue steering it from a phone on the commute, and pick up the finished files on the desktop app — all without re-uploading context. Scheduled tasks that run in the cloud remove the need to keep a machine awake for recurring work such as daily email summaries or weekly metric pulls.
Our take
Anthropic is betting that persistent, cloud-backed agent sessions that follow the account — not the device — will become the default way knowledge workers delegate multi-step work. The desktop app remains the gateway for local file system and OS-level actions, which keeps the security boundary clear but also means the "work from anywhere" promise still tethers heavy local tasks to a running desktop instance.
