Anthropic has opened a research preview of Claude Duet, a new app that turns its assistant into a proactive agent — one that messages you first instead of waiting to be prompted.
Announced on October 21, Duet is available via waitlist for Pro and Max subscribers in the United States, on iOS, Android, and claude.ai. Designed around Claude Opus 5.5, it targets professionals and small business owners.
Each morning, Duet sends a short brief on the most important items across the user’s connected apps. During the day it checks those accounts every few hours and messages only when something needs attention — Anthropic says nonstop checking would burn through plan limits too fast. Users can hand it tasks by text or voice, from scheduling meetings to building dashboards and web apps. It runs on its own virtual machine with its own browser, so the user’s laptop or phone does not need to stay on.
The connector catalog is the pitch: more than 6,000 connectors and plugins, including Stripe, QuickBooks, Gusto, DocuSign, HubSpot, Shopify, Gmail, Slack, Notion, and Canva.
Safety gates are the differentiator. Duet reads, drafts, and prepares work on its own — but before it sends a message, makes a payment, signs a document, or deletes anything, it shows the user exactly what it will do and waits for approval. Trading securities and moving money are off-limits even with approval. The app has been red-teamed, externally penetration tested, and added to Anthropic’s HackerOne bug bounty.
The preview has stated limits: it can misread a thread or miscalibrate urgency, and personal errands are weaker than work tasks. See how it stacks up in our best AI tools for small business owners.
Source: Unite.AI
