Picture this: You’re out and about, you text Claude from your phone, and by the time you get home, your Mac has already completed the task. That’s Claude Dispatch.
What is Dispatch?
Dispatch is a new feature inside Claude Cowork. You open the Claude app on your phone, give Claude an assignment, and your Mac executes it. Your computer reads files, uses connectors, runs code - your phone is just the remote control.
The key detail: It’s a persistent conversation thread between phone and desktop. You send a message, Claude works, you get the result back. Like a chat message, except there’s an AI operating your computer on the other end.
When did it become available?
Dispatch launched on March 17 for Max subscribers and has been available to Pro users since March 22. You need both the Claude Desktop app and the Claude mobile app.
One caveat: If your Mac goes to sleep or the Desktop app closes, Dispatch pauses. Your computer needs to be running for Claude to work.
Real-world examples
What can you actually do with Dispatch? A few scenarios:
- ‘Check my emails and summarize the three most important ones’
- ‘Look at the latest commits in the repo and create a status report’
- ‘Pull the sales numbers from the spreadsheet and prepare a presentation’
Claude uses the same connectors and plugins as a normal Cowork session. The difference: You don’t need to be sitting at your desk.
Dispatch vs. OpenClaw
Over in China, OpenClaw is making waves - a similar concept where an AI remotely controls your desktop. People in Shenzhen were literally lining up to try it. Anthropic delivers the Western answer with Dispatch - embedded in the existing Cowork ecosystem and built with the familiar safety-first approach.
My take
Dispatch is one of those features that seems underwhelming at first glance. You send a message, Claude works. But once you’ve used it, there’s no going back. The ability to delegate AI tasks asynchronously - letting Claude work while you do something completely different - fundamentally changes the workflow.
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