Until September 2026, using Claude meant choosing between two modes. Chat was for questions, and Cowork was for handing over real work: reading folders, running code, building spreadsheets. On 16 September, Anthropic started merging the two, and now everything Cowork does is available from any conversation. You don't pick a mode first. You describe what you want finished, and Claude works out the steps. It sounds like a small interface change, but it changes the best way to use Claude.
What Claude can now do in any chat
Anthropic's help centre describes the unified Claude as able to take a whole task, search the web, read your files, run code and combine the results into something finished. That finished thing can be a document, a spreadsheet with working formulas or a PowerPoint presentation. In Claude Desktop, you can give it access to a folder on your computer. It can browse the web with its built-in browser or with Claude in Chrome. On Pro and Max, computer use, where Claude operates apps on your desktop, is in beta and works while the desktop app is open.
Two features make it feel more like a colleague than a chatbot. Long tasks run in the cloud, and tasks you start on your desktop show up on your phone, so you can check progress from anywhere. And scheduled tasks can run in the cloud on a timetable, so a Monday report can be waiting for you even if your laptop is shut. The one exception is anything that needs files or apps on your own computer, which requires Claude Desktop to be open.
Ask for outcomes, not answers
The most useful habit to build is describing the result you want rather than the steps to get there. Anthropic's own guidance says you don't need to break the work into steps or pick a mode. Compare these two requests. "What should be in a competitor analysis?" gets you a list. "Research our three main competitors' pricing pages, compare them with ours in a spreadsheet, and write a one-page summary of where we are cheaper and where we are not" gets you two files you can send.
A good outcome request has three parts: the finished thing you want, the material Claude should work from, and how you'll judge it. For example: "Using the sales CSVs in my Q3 folder, build a spreadsheet of revenue by region with a chart, and flag any region that fell more than 10% from Q2." Claude will plan the steps, ask if something is unclear and show you the files when it is done.
Settings to check before you start
Look at the permission setting in the message box first. On Pro, Max and Team it defaults to Auto, which lets Claude go ahead with steps it judges safe. On Enterprise it defaults to Manual, which asks before each action. If you are giving Claude a folder of sensitive files for the first time, Manual is a sensible starting point, and you can relax it once you trust the pattern.
Your old global instructions now live under Settings, in Your Claude, as Instructions for Claude. This is the single most valuable place to spend five minutes, because everything Claude does for you in any conversation reads from it. Write down your role, your company, the tone you want, and things to always or never do. Connectors for your other apps are under Customize, then Connectors.
What changed and what didn't
Your projects, connectors, skills, artifacts, files and existing Cowork tasks all carry over, and Cowork tasks now sit in Recents alongside your chats. There's no separate web search switch any more, because Claude searches when it helps. For in-depth research, type /deep-research or choose Research from the plus menu. A few things are missing for now: you can't branch a conversation, Add from GitHub isn't supported, and search doesn't cover older Cowork tasks. Incognito chats still open in the old experience and can't create files or run code. Once your account has moved to the new Claude, you can't switch back.
The rollout started with Pro and Max on web, desktop and mobile. Team has it in beta, and Enterprise organisations get it where an admin has turned it on. If your Claude still shows separate Chat and Cowork options, your account simply hasn't moved yet.
Three tasks to try this week
Start with a recurring report. Give Claude the folder or connected drive where the raw numbers live and ask for the finished report, then schedule it to run every week. Second, try a research handoff: name a question you would normally spend an afternoon on and ask for a short brief with sources. Third, clean up something messy, like a folder of invoices or a spreadsheet of survey answers, and ask Claude to organise it and explain what it found.
If you use these features a lot, you'll eventually want them to run on their own, without you starting each one. That is exactly what Anthropic's new Claude Duet app is for. For ready-made task combinations by team, see our Claude playbooks.