Image: Anthropic Claude Cowork Gets Dispatch: One Persistent Agent You Can Message From Your Phone
Anthropic ships Dispatch in Claude Cowork as a research preview. It's a single persistent conversation with Claude that runs on your desktop while you message it from anywhere.
Anthropic just shipped a new feature in Claude Cowork called Dispatch. Felix Rieseberg, who leads engineering on Cowork, announced it on X today as a research preview.
The concept is simple: one persistent conversation with Claude that runs on your computer. You message it from your phone. You come back to finished work.
To try it, you download Claude Desktop and pair your mobile device. Claude keeps working on your machine while you’re away from your desk.
We’re shipping a new feature in Claude Cowork as a research preview that I’m excited about: Dispatch!
— Felix Rieseberg (@felixrieseberg) March 17, 2026
One persistent conversation with Claude that runs on your computer. Message it from your phone. Come back to finished work.
To try it out, download Claude Desktop, then pair… pic.twitter.com/r6OH46Ll89
What Dispatch Actually Is
Cowork already lets you assign tasks to Claude from your phone if you’re on a Pro or Max plan. You can message Claude from the mobile app, and it works on files using your desktop in the background. But that mobile access has felt like a secondary feature, not the main interface.
Dispatch reframes the whole thing. Instead of separate chats and tasks, you get a single persistent conversation. Think of it as an always-on channel to your local Claude agent. You fire off requests from your phone throughout the day, and Claude handles them on your desktop using your files, connectors, and plugins.
The “persistent” part matters. Previous Cowork conversations stored history locally but didn’t maintain state across sessions in a way that felt continuous. Dispatch treats the conversation as one long-running thread. Claude keeps the context of what you’ve asked it to do, what it’s working on, and what’s finished.
How It Compares to Remote Control
If this sounds familiar, that’s because Claude Code got a similar feature called Remote Control in late February. Remote Control lets developers start a Claude Code session in their terminal and pick it up from their phone or a browser. The code runs locally, the phone is just a window.
Dispatch is the Cowork equivalent. Same core idea, different audience. Remote Control targets developers working in the terminal. Dispatch targets knowledge workers using Claude Desktop for file management, research, document creation, and general productivity.
The architecture is likely similar: your desktop stays on and does the actual work. Your phone connects through Anthropic’s servers as a control surface. Nothing moves to the cloud, the compute stays local.
| Feature | Remote Control | Dispatch |
|---|---|---|
| Product | Claude Code (terminal) | Claude Cowork (desktop) |
| Audience | Developers | Knowledge workers |
| Session type | Terminal session | Persistent conversation |
| Phone access | Yes | Yes |
| Local execution | Yes | Yes |
| Launched | February 2026 | March 17, 2026 |
Why This Matters
The shift from “chat with AI” to “manage AI that works for you” has been happening all year. Cowork launched in January as a research preview that gave Claude access to your local files. Since then, Anthropic has added plugins, connectors for Google Drive and Gmail, scheduled tasks, and enterprise support. Microsoft even built Copilot Cowork on top of Claude for M365.
Dispatch is the logical next step. If Claude is working on your machine autonomously, you shouldn’t need to sit in front of your computer to manage it. You should be able to text it from your phone like you’d message a coworker on Slack.
That’s a real behavioral shift. It changes Claude from something you sit down and use to something that runs in the background and responds when you need it. The phone becomes the interface for checking in, and the desktop becomes the execution layer.
The Practical Reality
A few things to keep in mind. Cowork requires your Claude Desktop app to stay open and your computer to stay awake. If your laptop goes to sleep, tasks stop. When it wakes up, scheduled tasks resume, but anything in-progress will have been interrupted.
Dispatch is a research preview, which means it’s early. Cowork itself has been in research preview since January, and Anthropic has been iterating on it quickly. Felix Rieseberg has been public about wanting feedback, and the Cowork team has shipped updates nearly every week since launch.
Availability for Dispatch likely follows the same pattern as other Cowork features: Pro and Max subscribers first. Cowork’s mobile access has required at least a Pro plan, and Dispatch builds on that same infrastructure.
Who Is Felix Rieseberg?
For those unfamiliar: Rieseberg is a Member of Technical Staff at Anthropic who leads engineering on Claude Cowork. Before Anthropic, he worked at Notion, Stripe, and Slack. He’s been the public face of Cowork since its January launch, regularly posting updates and responding to feedback on X. He also led engineering on the Claude Desktop apps for macOS and Windows, and previously on Claude.ai itself.
The Bigger Picture
Anthropic has been on a tear in 2026. Claude Code became the dominant AI coding tool. Cowork extended that same agent architecture to non-developers. Remote Control untethered Claude Code from the terminal. And now Dispatch does the same for Cowork.
The pattern is clear: Anthropic wants Claude to be a persistent presence on your machine that you interact with from anywhere, not a website you visit. Every major feature this year has pushed in that direction. Dispatch is the latest step, and probably not the last.
Sources: Felix Rieseberg on X, Claude Cowork product page, Claude Cowork introduction, Claude Code Remote Control docs, Anthropic Cowork enterprise updates (CNBC), Copilot Cowork launch (WinBuzzer)
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