Every AI chatbot app that you have used so far doesn't respond until you type a prompt. However, Anthropic's new Claude Duet app can message you first and act on something if you have missed it without any prompting. The new Claude Duet app was announced last night for Android and iOS and it's available in the US only for now. So, if you are curious about the new Claude Duet app and how it compares against OpenAI Dots, Meta Muse and other proactive AI agents, follow our explainer below.
What Is the Claude Duet App?
Claude Duet is Anthropic's new standalone app and it makes Claude a proactive AI agent. It keeps track of your work and reaches out on its own. The Claude Duet app is powered by Claude Opus 5.5 and available as a separate app on iOS and Android.
If you already use Claude, Duet picks up your existing memory, skills and app connections right away, so you don't have to configure it.
You can talk to Duet by text or voice and conversations remain in a single running thread rather than separate chats. The main difference from the regular Claude app is who starts the conversation. In the Claude app, you begin every chat, whereas in Duet, Claude comes to you when something needs your attention.
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Claude Duet Talks to You First, Without a Prompt
Your day with Duet starts with a brief summary of what matters to you by pulling information from connected apps. Beyond that, Duet stays quiet and only pings you when it finds something that requires your input.
According to Anthropic, the Opus 5.5 AI model gives Duet the judgement to separate urgent actions and low-priority actions and to decide when it should ask you before acting. Anthropic gave a couple of examples. A real estate broker said the Claude Duet app spotted that her house viewing date was entered in her calendar on the wrong date, even though she had never asked it to look.
In another instance, a brand professional had a call with a client coming up. Duet came up with a brief for the meeting, but then realised the call was too close to her flight. And Duet suggested rescheduling the meeting without being asked.
That said, Duet doesn't monitor your connected apps and accounts in real time. It looks at your connected apps in an interval of a few hours so that your Claude usage quota doesn't drain too quickly. So, anything that comes up between these intervals may not reach you.
Anthropic also says that Duet can still misjudge how urgent something is or misunderstand an email thread. If you want, you can instruct Duet on which updates matter to you and how frequently it should send them.
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How the Claude Duet App Works
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It Has Its Own Computer in the Cloud
The Claude Duet app has access to its own computer in the cloud. Each Duet user gets a cloud-based virtual machine (VM) with a dedicated browser. It means the AI agent keeps working even when your phone and laptop are switched off.
You simply send Duet a brief description of the task and it figures out the apps and steps required to complete the task in the background.
You get a notification on your phone when the task is done or when Duet needs you to look at something. The tasks can be as small as setting up a meeting or working on your sales forecast or financial projection sheet. Once done, Duet delivers the output as a document, sheet or presentation for you to review.
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Over 6,000 Connectors and Plugins
Duet has access to over 6,000 connectors and plugins in the Claude Marketplace and Anthropic has shared plenty of business use cases. Duet can go through your Gmail and Slack to show messages that you have overlooked. It can look up pending payments in QuickBooks or Stripe and write reminder emails to clients.
On top of that, it can draft LinkedIn job listings and write follow-ups based on your HubSpot deal history. It can also create a Canva campaign for a product launch and run a Shopify store. Not too mention, Duet can also make purchases for your business through Stripe's Link wallet, but it's not available in India.
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You Approve the Important Actions
Duet can read your data, write drafts and prepare documents without asking you. But anything with real consequences like sending a message, making a payment, signing a document or deleting a file needs your approval first. Duet shows you a preview of the exact action before it goes ahead.
Anthropic has also blocked certain actions on the Duet app. So even with your approval, it can't trade securities or transfer money between accounts. You can also disconnect any app from Duet whenever you want.
How Claude Duet Keeps Your Data Safe
Since Duet uses the same credential system as Claude Managed Agents, the AI agent can never see your passwords or sign-in tokens directly. In addition, every action passes through Anthropic's auto mode classifier. It's the same safeguard Claude Code and Claude use to block actions the user never requested.
Apart from that, Anthropic has developed a dedicated classifier and system prompt to scan each outgoing message for sensitive data. Duet will flatly refuse to share things like credit card and government ID numbers.
Claude Duet App Availability and Pricing
Right now, the Claude Duet app is an early research preview and you need to join a waitlist (visit) to get access. It's open to Claude Pro and Max subscribers in the US. Anthropic is not charging anything extra for Duet as it uses the same usage quota from your Claude plan.
As for India, Claude Pro and Max plans are offered here, but the Claude Duet app is not available yet. Anthropic has not shared any timeline for other countries so it will take time.
Which Proactive AI Agent Can You Use in India?
If you are in India, OpenAI's Dots is rolling out to ChatGPT Pro users in India. OpenAI's Dots is the closest rival to Claude Duet. It runs on GPT-6 Astra model and has access to a cloud computer and browser of its own and can access more than 4,000 apps via plugins.
Dots also does something OpenAI calls "proactive research". Basically, it looks through your connected apps in the background, writes notes for itself and then suggests next steps. OpenAI limits this mode to read-only access, so Dots can't send messages or change anything while doing this research.
The the interesting part is that you can talk to OpenAI's AI agent in many ways. You can message Dots in ChatGPT, Slack or Microsoft Teams and you can even call it and talk things through. Dots also lets you open its cloud computer and take over and you can connect your own PC so it can interact with local files.
Next, Meta's Muse is the most consumer-focused AI agent of the lot, but it's not available in India yet. It's powered by Meta's Muse Spark model and has access to a dedicated cloud computer called Muse Secure VM. Muse also lets you personalise your agent with its own name, avatar and way of talking. You can even have a Realtime Avatar mode for video conversations with your agent. However, Muse is only available in the US and Canada.
Finally, keep in mind that all of these AI agents run in the cloud and need access to your email, calendar and personal information. So, only grant permission if you trust the AI agent and the company behind it.
