Every AI assistant you have used so far waits for you to type something. Claude Duet doesn't. Anthropic opened a research preview of Duet on 21 October 2026, and it works the other way around: it checks your connected apps, sends you a short brief every morning, messages you during the day when something needs a decision, and keeps working on tasks in the background after you close the app. It is the clearest sign yet of where AI assistants are heading, and it is worth understanding even if you can't use it yet.
What Claude Duet is
Claude Duet is a separate app from the main Claude app, available on iOS, Android and claude.ai. Anthropic describes it as a proactive agent, meaning an AI that takes the first step instead of waiting for instructions. You talk to it in one ongoing conversation, by typing or by voice, and it brings over your memory, skills and connected apps from your existing Claude account. It runs on Claude Opus 5.5, Anthropic's top everyday model, and you can't switch to a different one.
Three things make it different from regular Claude. It checks your connected accounts every few hours and tells you what matters. It has its own virtual computer with a browser, so it can keep working when your laptop and phone are off. And it is built to finish whole jobs, not answer single questions: Anthropic's examples include chasing unpaid invoices, running payroll, scheduling meetings, building a sales forecast and preparing a social media campaign.
What it connects to
Duet works through the same connectors as the rest of Claude, and Anthropic says more than 6,000 connectors and plugins are available. The examples Anthropic gives are aimed at professionals and small business owners: Gmail and Slack to find messages you missed and draft replies, QuickBooks and Stripe to spot unpaid invoices, Gusto for payroll, HubSpot for follow-up emails, Docusign for agreements, LinkedIn for job posts, Canva for designs and Shopify for online stores. Early reports say Microsoft 365 isn't supported yet, so if your work lives in Outlook and Teams, Duet will be much less useful for now.
What it won't do without asking
The most important design choice in Duet is where it stops. It reads, drafts and prepares on its own, but before it sends a message, makes a payment, signs a document or deletes anything, it shows you exactly what it is about to do and waits for your yes. Some actions are off-limits even with approval, such as trading securities or moving money between accounts. It doesn't make phone calls or send text messages.
Anthropic also says Duet never directly sees your passwords or sign-in tokens, that a separate safety system checks messages for leaks of sensitive information like card numbers and ID numbers, and that it only shares health or personal finance details when you have explicitly told it to. Anthropic is open about the limits too: Duet might misread a thread or misjudge what's urgent, it is weaker at personal errands than at work tasks, and you can't watch its browser while it works.
Who can use it right now
For now, Duet is limited to Pro and Max subscribers in the United States, through a waitlist on Anthropic's Duet product page. Anthropic emails people as places open up, and coverage suggests invitations go out in waves. Team and Enterprise plans aren't included yet, and Anthropic hasn't given a date for other countries. Duet is included in Pro and Max at no extra charge and uses the same usage limits as the rest of Claude, which matters because the background checks and long tasks count against those limits.
Duet arrives in a crowded month. OpenAI's dots and Meta's Muse are going after the same idea of an always-on assistant, and coverage positions Duet as Anthropic's answer to both. The main difference so far is caution. Duet can't touch the files on your computer and asks before anything consequential, which makes it slower to impress but easier to trust with a business inbox.
How to set it up so it is useful
A proactive agent is only as good as what it can see and what it knows about your priorities. If you get access, connect the two or three apps where your real work happens before anything else, usually email, calendar or Slack, and your invoicing tool. Fewer, well-chosen connections give you a sharper morning brief than connecting everything.
Then tell it what matters, in plain language, on the first day. For example: "My priorities are paying customers, invoices over 30 days late and anything from my accountant. Newsletters and cold sales emails are never urgent." Because Duet carries over your Claude memory and skills, the instructions you give it keep paying off. Skills you have already built in Claude, such as a house style for client emails, will shape the drafts it prepares.
Finally, start with one recurring job instead of handing it your whole week. Chasing late invoices every Friday is a good first test because the stakes are clear and every message still needs your approval.
If you can't get Duet yet
Most of our readers are outside the US or on another plan, so the practical move is to build the foundation now. In regular Claude, connect your main apps, write down your priorities in your profile preferences, and package the tasks you repeat into skills. Our Claude lessons walk through each of these. When Duet or a similar agent reaches you, it will start out already knowing how you work, instead of spending its first week learning.