Anthropic has opened a U.S. research preview of Claude Duet, an AI agent designed to work across connected apps and continue tasks after a user steps away. The release adds Anthropic to the growing market for assistants that can act on a person’s behalf instead of only answering questions.
Claude Duet works proactively
Duet is built around Claude Opus 5.5 and runs on a virtual machine in the cloud. Anthropic says it can review connected information, identify work that needs attention, prepare drafts and continue working in the background. It supports typed and voice messages and can maintain context across conversations.
Although Duet can work independently, it is designed to request approval before sending a message, making a payment, signing a document or deleting information. Anthropic’s help page says Duet can send approved emails, but it cannot make phone calls or send text messages.
U.S. access remains limited
For now, the preview is available in the United States through a waitlist for Claude Pro and Max subscribers. Anthropic says Duet is included in those plans at no additional cost, but background work uses the same usage limits as regular Claude conversations. Team and Enterprise plans are not supported yet.
Anthropic’s announcement describes the release as an early version that will change as the company studies user feedback. Duet is available as a separate app for iOS and Android and through Claude.ai.
Agent limits remain visible
The early version has clear limits. Anthropic warns that Duet may misread a conversation or misjudge what is urgent. It cannot currently show users its browser activity, and Microsoft 365 is not yet available as a connector.
Some actions remain blocked even when a user approves them, including trading securities, moving money between accounts and accessing another person’s account. These limits give users control over the most consequential actions as Anthropic tests the product.
References
Anthropic. (2026, October 21). Introducing Claude Duet. Claude by Anthropic. https://claude.com/de/resources/articles/claude-duet
Anthropic. (2026, October 21). Get started with Claude Duet. Claude Help Center. https://support.claude.com/en/articles/17631495-get-started-with-claude-duet
Shittu, E. (2026, October 22). Anthropic rolls out Claude Duet, but enterprises aren’t ready. TechTarget. https://www.techtarget.com/ai/news/366652530/Anthropic-rolls-out-Claude-Duet-but-enterprises-arent-ready