Claude Duet: Anthropic's proactive agent app (US waitlist only, not in the UK yet)

Mostly fact: Anthropic has opened an early research preview of Claude Duet, a separate app for iOS, Android and the web where Claude (running on Opus 5.5) sends you a morning brief from your connected apps, checks in every few hours, only messages you when something needs you, and keeps working on its own cloud computer while your phone and laptop are off. It asks before it sends, pays, signs or deletes anything, and some actions stay off-limits even with your approval, such as trading or moving money between accounts. The hype to trim: it's a waitlist for US Pro and Max subscribers only and is not available in the UK yet, it eats into your plan's usage limits, it checks every few hours rather than in real time, Microsoft 365 isn't supported yet, and Anthropic itself says it can still misjudge what's urgent.

Why it mattersIt's pitched squarely at professionals and small-business owners, with jobs like invoices, payroll prep and contracts, and it puts Anthropic in the same race as Meta's Muse for always-on assistant agents. UK readers can't use it yet, so watch what US testers report and use the wait to tidy up the apps and connectors you'd want it to see.

How we knowCompany figures are labelled as their own claims; anything we couldn't verify is labelled as a report or a claim.