Claude Agent Goes Mobile as Anthropic Expands AI

Anthropic no longer wants Claude Cowork chained to a laptop lid. The company announced Tuesday that its agent, which handles digital busywork like sorting files or drafting emails, now runs independent of the desktop app that launched it in January. Users can reach limited versions of Cowork through the Claude phone app or a browser, without keeping a machine open and connected.

That matters because Cowork's original pitch depended on an active desktop session: close the laptop, and the agent stopped working. Overnight tasks, scheduled jobs, and anything triggered by a late email simply waited until morning.

The change lands as AI companies race to make agents feel less tied to a single device. Anthropic's own launch video shows the shift in practice: a user preparing for a business deal renewal asks Cowork to gather context from email, Slack, meeting transcripts, and recent online mentions, then produce a reference document and a draft email, all from one prompt. That kind of multistep task previously required a laptop running in the background. Now Anthropic is betting people want that same follow-through without babysitting a screen.