Anthropic Tries to Bring Cowork to Smartphones: Is Dispatch Running Out of Time?

Anthropic is reportedly working on a version of Claude Cowork designed for smartphones, which has not yet been officially announced and is currently visible only through some screenshots circulating on X. The images showcase an interface that allows users to start and manage tasks directly from their phone, with work continuing in the background even after the app is closed.

The experience would also be cross-device: the same task would remain accessible from the phone, browser, or the Claude Desktop app, allowing users to pick up where they left off on any screen. This is a step to extend a tool that has so far been confined to other platforms.

ANTHROPIC 🔥: Claude for mobile is getting Cowork support soon!

Keep Cowork going when you are on the go
Start and steer tasks directly from your phone
Check in from your phone, browser, or Claude desktop app
Work continues in the background, even when you close the app

— 🚨 AI News | TestingCatalog (@testingcatalog)
June 22, 2026

Until now, Cowork was indeed limited to Claude Desktop on macOS and Windows, which has defined its nature. It is an agent that works within the user's documents with access to local files, first previewed in January and made publicly available on April 9, 2026, when Anthropic removed the “preview” label and added controls intended for businesses.

The Phone as a Remote Control and the Overlap with Dispatch

According to sources, the model remains that of remote control. Cowork continues to run on the user’s computer, with its access to local files while the phone acts as a control panel from which tasks can be initiated and monitored.

Since March 2026, Anthropic has already offered Dispatch, a feature in research preview that maintains a persistent conversation with the Claude running on the computer, and makes it messageable from the phone, following pairing between Claude Desktop and the mobile app.

Dispatch allows users to assign tasks from mobile that are then executed on the desktop using local files, browser, connectors, plugins, and computer resources, with a push notification sent when the results are ready. It maintains a single thread that does not reset, retains the context of previous tasks, and supports recurring tasks: once instructed, Claude can produce, for example, a weekly report or a morning email check without further requests.

The features shown in the screenshots, such as starting from the phone, background execution, and cross-device access, almost literally coincide with what Dispatch already does. From the available screenshots, it is unclear whether this represents a more native and complete mobile interface, although the little that can be seen seems to resemble the appearance of Claude Cowork on desktop. Therefore, it is possible that Anthropic is reorganizing the Dispatch function, making it at least visually and user experience-wise similar to what can be experienced with Cowork on desktop, thus simplifying the use compared to the single thread of Dispatch, which in some situations may prove to be less immediate and intuitive.

At this point, it is unclear how distinct this experimentation is from what is already available. Anthropic has not released details, and until a formal announcement arrives, the distance between the “in testing” mobile Cowork and the already active Dispatch remains to be measured.