Anthropic Merges Claude Cowork and Chat into a Single Unified Interface
Anthropic is merging Claude Cowork and standard Claude chat into a single unified interface across web, desktop, and mobile platforms. Users can now ask quick conversational questions or hand off complex, asynchronous background tasks within the same environment. This consolidation eliminates user confusion about choosing between different feature modes, positioning Claude as a seamless general-purpose AI agent. It enables automated workflows to persist and finish autonomously even after a user closes their laptop. The unified interface is rolling out over the coming weeks initially to existing and new subscribers on Claude Pro and Max plans. Tasks assigned to Claude can continue running independently in the background, leaving the final review and approval to the user.
## BACKGROUND
Anthropic previously maintained distinct user interfaces for standard conversational chat and Claude Cowork, an agentic workspace feature designed for generating documents, decks, and spreadsheets from connected data. Navigation across these products—alongside specialized tools like Claude Code—often created confusion over which surface to use for specific tasks.