Anthropic says Claude Duet can keep working after your laptop and phone are switched off. The proactive agent checks connected apps, prepares work in the background, and contacts you when it decides something needs attention.
Access starts with a waitlist. In its October 21 announcement, Anthropic opened a Claude Duet research preview for U.S. Claude Pro and Max subscribers. This is not general availability, and an eligible subscription does not mean immediate access.
Duet puts Anthropic into direct competition with Meta Muse and OpenAI Dots: agents designed to maintain context and advance tasks without waiting for a fresh prompt at every step. Anthropic is pitching Duet to professionals and small-business owners facing administrative work. The immediate questions are how much it can do unattended, what still requires permission, and how that background activity affects an existing Claude subscription.
Access Starts With a U.S. Paid-Subscriber Waitlist
For the research preview, Anthropic says Duet is included in Claude Pro and Max plans. Eligible U.S. subscribers can join the waitlist through the announcement; the company says it will email them when access is ready.
Duet has standalone iOS and Android apps and is also accessible through Claude on the web. The mobile experience is separate from the main Claude app for now. Anthropic says feedback from early users will help determine how the two work together.
The company has begun admitting research-preview users, but Duet is not available to every paying customer. The announcement does not establish access for Free, Team, or Enterprise accounts, or subscribers outside the United States.
There is no general-availability date either. Anyone considering a subscription specifically for Duet should treat eligibility and admission as separate things: the waitlist offers an opportunity to participate in an early release, not a delivery commitment.
Duet Checks Apps Every Few Hours, Not Continuously
Anthropic built Duet around Claude Opus 5.5, with access to the memory, skills, and connected apps already associated with a user’s Claude account. Users can communicate by typing or voice in one ongoing thread.
The routine starts with a morning brief highlighting important items across connected apps. During the day, Duet checks those accounts and decides whether something warrants a message.
The “always-on” description comes with a qualification: Duet checks connected accounts every few hours, rather than monitoring them continuously. Anthropic says nonstop checking would consume subscription limits much faster. Users can tell it which topics warrant notifications and how often they want to hear from it.
