Anthropic launches Claude Duet, a proactive Opus 5.5 agent app for professionals

Anthropic has entered the consumer and prosumer agent race with Claude Duet, a dedicated app built on Claude Opus 5.5. Unlike the chat-first Claude app, Duet works proactively. It tracks messages and tasks across more than 6,000 connected services, produces daily briefings, helps plan meetings and forecasts, and can build simple web apps. Small-business owners and professionals are the stated audience.

Access is a waitlisted research preview for US Pro and Max subscribers on iOS, Android and claude.ai. Sensitive actions require explicit user approval, a guardrail consistent with Anthropic's cautious agent posture.

Duet is positioned squarely against Meta's Muse, which just passed 10 million users and expanded to Japan, and OpenAI's Dots. Commentators note the contest is now about who owns a professional's inbox and task list rather than raw model scores.

Early reception is mixed. Reddit users complain that approval prompts block routine actions and that text-to-speech is weak. They also note that one email identity must span all services, and some say Duet trails Muse and Dots. Separately, r/Anthropic users report sharply reduced Claude Code usage limits, which adds to concerns about capacity.