I am still wrapping my head around this, having just restarted my computer to see that "Chat" and "Cowork" are now one within Cowork (desktop). So I asked the expert to help me decode what's happening: Claude himself. 😆 It's true: Anthropic just merged Chat and Cowork into one unified experience and it seems like the simplest reframe is this: 👉 Chat = thinking out loud, iterating, one exchange at a time 👉 Cowork = hand it a task, step away, come back to finished work If you're still wondering when Cowork earns its place, it's these things: ✅ The job has multiple deliverables at once (think: outline + talking points + promo email + social posts, all in one session, just an example for those of us who are speaking at summits perhaps LOL) ✅ You want to step away and come back to finished work ✅ It needs to touch your actual files or browser ✅ The task is simply too big to hold in one chat exchange For everything else Chat is faster and more interactive. Those of us who love our Claudes will be happy to hear this! Knowing which to reach for is the actual skill. 💨 And huge news: Cowork now runs in the cloud, so your laptop doesn't need to stay open while it works. It's being rolled out as we speak so check your desktop app to see if it's landed for you yet.