Anthropic's Claude Duet Tells You What Needs Doing Before You Ask
It checks your connected apps every few hours and reports back, and keeps working on what you handed off even when your own device is off. The preview starts with Pro and Max subscribers in the US, and those automatic checks count against your plan's usage.
Anthropic released a research preview of Claude Duet on October 21. It is an app that tells you what needs doing instead of waiting for you to ask. Built on Claude Opus 5.5, it keeps an eye on the apps you connect and carries on with the tasks you hand it. The main audience is professionals and small business owners juggling several things at once.
What does it flag for you?
Claude Duet gives you a short rundown each morning of what matters in your connected apps. After that, it checks your accounts every few hours and speaks up when something needs attention. Anthropic says it is designed to tell apart what you need to know now from what can wait. You decide what shows up in your notifications and how often.
The company says you can also hand off things like rescheduling a meeting or checking on an unpaid invoice. Reports, sales forecasts, dashboards, and web apps are all fair game too. According to Anthropic, you can draw on more than 6,000 connectors and plugins listed in the Claude Marketplace. Connect the apps you work in, and Duet handles everything from the checking to the finished deliverable.
Does it work while my device is off?
Because tasks run on Duet’s virtual computer and browser, it keeps working on what you gave it even when your own device is off. The biggest change from the Claude you already know is that it looks over your connected apps on a schedule and reaches out first. It also carries over the memories, skills, and connected apps saved in your existing Claude account. For now, though, it sits separately from the main Claude app.
Some actions that reach into the outside world need your sign-off. Sending messages, making payments, signing documents, and deleting things all require approval. Securities trades and transfers between accounts are off the table entirely, even with your approval.
Anthropic was also upfront about Duet’s weak spots. It can misjudge how urgent something is or misread a conversation. Running personal errands is another area where it still fumbles. There is also the limitation that you cannot see what Duet’s browser is doing.
Who can use it, and at what price?
The preview opened to Claude Pro and Max subscribers in the US, who sign up through a waitlist. It is available in dedicated iOS and Android apps and on claude.ai. There is no extra charge during the preview, but it draws on the usage limits of your existing plan. The periodic account checks running in the background also count against that limit, which means the automatic monitoring eats into what you have left for other Claude work.
Duet is an attempt to take away the burden of having to ask every single time. In real work, the verdict will likely come down to how accurately it sorts urgent notifications from the rest, and how much usage those automatic checks consume. Access is currently limited to US subscribers. For readers in Korea, broader availability and Korean-language support remain the open questions.