Anthropic has launched Claude Duet, an app where Claude takes the initiative instead of waiting for a prompt, and it is available only as an early trial. Anthropic’s announcement on claude.com says the trial begins with Pro and Max subscribers in the US. Everyone else joins a waitlist and gets an email once their turn comes.
Duet is a standalone app for iOS and Android, and it also works through claude.ai. It comes bundled with Pro and Max at no extra charge, but it shares the allowance you already have for Claude. Anthropic says its background checks eat into that allowance, and larger jobs, for example a forecast model or a slide deck, take more turns and more behind-the-scenes work. For heavy users, the cost of a proactive agent may be a plan that runs dry sooner.
The routine is simple. Every morning Duet sends a brief covering the most urgent items across the apps you have linked. Through the day it looks at those accounts every few hours and pings you only when something needs you. Anthropic says it picked that interval because constant checking would drain plan limits far faster. You can set what it flags and how often, and you give it errands by typing or talking in a single running conversation.
Duet works on a cloud machine that has a browser of its own, so your laptop or phone can be switched off. It inherits the memory, skills, and linked apps from your Claude account. Anthropic says it can draw on more than 6,000 connectors and plugins from the Claude Marketplace. The examples include Gmail, Slack, QuickBooks, Stripe, Gusto payroll, Docusign, HubSpot, Canva, and Shopify.
The approval rule is the heart of the design. Duet can read, draft, and prepare on its own. When an action would send a message, spend money, sign a document, or delete something, it lays out exactly what it intends to do and waits for a yes. Two actions stay blocked even with your consent: trading securities and moving money between accounts. Purchases go through Stripe’s Link wallet, which pays using a disposable virtual card, keeping your real number private, or through Shop Pay.
On security, Anthropic says Duet never directly handles your passwords or login tokens. It also says red teams and an outside firm tested the system and that Duet is covered by the company’s public bug bounty. A new classifier is meant to refuse any request to pass along the most protected category of data, which covers card numbers and government ID. Health and finance details go out only if you explicitly say so. Those are Anthropic’s own assurances, and the company has promised more detail on the safety design in the coming days.
The company is frank about the rough edges. Duet can misread a thread or misjudge what is urgent. Personal errands, like booking tickets, work less well than business tasks, and it cannot yet show you what its browser is doing.
OpenAI and Meta have each already put out always-on personal agents, so Duet joins a crowded field. Anthropic’s angle is the work-first buyer, the professional or small business owner with more inboxes than hours, plus a firm line on approvals. The announcement offers no independent measurement of how often Duet’s judgment about what deserves your attention is right.
US subscribers on Pro or Max can join the waitlist, and should watch how quickly Duet uses up your allowance before you give it payroll or invoicing.
Reported by Anthropic on 21 October 2026, in its announcement “Introducing Claude Duet” on claude.com.
