The topic Claude’s Dispatch feature turned my phone into a remote control for my entire… is currently the subject of lively discussion — readers and analysts are keeping a close eye on developments.
This is taking place in a dynamic environment: companies’ decisions and competitors’ reactions can quickly change the picture.
You’ve likely heard people say that keeping up with AI has become a full-time job. I agree with that, but with a slightly different take. Nowadays, keeping up with Claude alone is the full-time job! Anthropic has been shipping features so incredibly fast that by the time I finish testing one, a bunch more have dropped.
In the past few weeks alone, the company dropped scheduled tasks in Claude Cowork, interactive visuals, Auto Mode for Claude Code, Projects within Cowork — and this list could go on and on. One particularly exciting feature the company announced is Dispatch, and I didn’t realize how much I needed it until I actually used it.
The Dispatch feature lets you quite literally “dispatch” a task to Claude from your phone, and the tool begins working on it on your desktop! Instead of opening a separate thread every time, Dispatch works as one continuous conversation that syncs across your phone and desktop. Claude figures out what kind of task you’re assigning it and first sets up the right environment. For instance, if you assigned it a development-related task, it’ll run in Claude Code!
To use Dispatch, you’ll need Claude installed on your iOS/Android device and the Claude Desktop app installed. Then, switch to Cowork or Claude Code and click Dispatch on the sidebar on the left. Simply hit Get Started and follow the on-screen instructions. On your desktop, you’ll have the options to give Claude access to your local files, connectors, and allow Claude to use your computer itself (with the new Computer Use feature).
Given Dispatch is designed to work on your desktop while you’re away, your computer needs to stay awake with the Claude Desktop app open. There’s a handy toggle during setup that prevents your desktop from going to sleep. I’d recommend turning it on, so your tasks don’t get interrupted mid-way!
Now, a completely reasonable question here is — how is this feature any different from beginning a typical thread on your phone, and then opening the same thread on your desktop later on? Threads sync across devices, so what’s the big deal? The difference is that Dispatch actually enables Claude to run the task on your desktop! A regular thread on your phone is limited to what Claude can do in the cloud. But with Dispatch, Claude has access to your local files, your installed apps, your connected services, and even your computer itself through Computer Use.
So when you message Claude from your phone asking it to pull data from a spreadsheet on your desktop and turn it into a presentation, it’s actually opening those files and doing the work on your machine! By the time you return back to your desk, you won’t need to bother opening anything yourself. The finished work is already there waiting for you! Claude will even send you a push notification on your phone when the task is done! If it needs permission or approval on anything while working on the task, you’ll be able to grant it all via your phone! This means you stay in control without needing to be anywhere near your computer.
It feels a bit similar to the idea of OpenClaw and similar AI agents. You communicate with the tool through instant messaging, and it goes off and does the work autonomously. But with Dispatch, it isn’t a third-party tool or a separate setup you need to tinker around with. It’s built right into the Claude ecosystem, and all you need is the Claude Desktop and mobile app, a Claude plan, and an active internet connection on both devices! Keep in mind that Dispatch is a feature that’s currently in research preview, so expect some hiccups here and there.
A few days ago, I wrote about how I’ve been using Claude Code’s Voice mode to essentially brain-dump everything I need to do for the day, and then asking it to convert it into an interactive HTML webpage that functions as a to-do list. It’s been working incredibly well, and it’s become an integral part of my morning routine. But there was a slight problem with the setup: I’d need to open my laptop first thing in the morning, head to the Terminal, type claude and only then could I begin. To make this easier, I made sure to have a Terminal window with Claude set up the night before so I’d only need to open my laptop and start talking. But with Dispatch, I don’t even need to do that. I can brain-dump my tasks from my phone while I’m still in bed, and by the time I sit down at my desk, the to-do list is already built and waiting for me on my desktop!
There have been a couple of days when I’ve had to skip this entire brain-dumping thing because I’m running late in the morning and need to make breakfast, get ready, and catch my ride. Jumping around with my laptop and simultaneously pressing the spacebar (since that’s how Claude Code’s Voice mode works) while also brain-dumping and also doing the classic morning tasks I needed to do just wasn’t realistic. But now, I can just pull out my phone, enable Dictation, head to Claude’s Dispatch thread and just brain-dump there — and it’ll begin working on it instantly! In this case, it asks me permission to access my desktop to be able to save the HTML file locally! Instead of needing to head to my laptop and approving it, I can just approve it right from my phone.
Another example of how I used Dispatch recently was when I needed to do a file manipulation task! I was assigned a group project where each member needed to do a couple of questions individually, and we then had to compile it all into one PDF. Now, most members of the group sent their work as images (and I had done the work on my iPad). By the end of it, I had 50 images, my own work, and I needed to organize them all in order in one neat PDF.
The images were on my phone, the PDF was on my phone, but I needed to submit it from my laptop. I knew Claude could handle this task easily, but to do it from my laptop, I’d first need to transfer all the images and files over to my laptop, then upload them to Claude. With Dispatch, I just sent everything straight from my phone, told Claude how I wanted them ordered, and it compiled the whole thing into one clean PDF on my desktop. This is a very simple example, but illustrates exactly why the feature is so useful!
Something I’ve been loving about Anthropic is that it launches features that you won’t find in other AI tools. These are features you wouldn’t really think you need, but they end up changing the way you work significantly. For instance, image generation has been around in AI tools for a while, but Claude put its own spin on it by launching interactive visuals that appear right within your conversations. I’ve been using Claude a lot to study and understand concepts lately, and the visuals feature is incredibly useful! Dispatch feels like another one of those features.