Claude AI is now available as a desktop app on Mac and Windows
Anthropic released Claude’s desktop apps for Mac and Windows on Thursday. The move comes after both OpenAI and Perplexity launched native apps for macOS. Claude desktop for Mac and Windows is currently in beta, but all users can download and install the app for the device. While the company did not specify whether the app version will gain additional features via the web client, it is said that the new apps will give users early access to the Claude AI assistant and the Claude 3.5 Sonnet AI model.
Anthropic releases Claude apps for Mac and Windows
In one after on X (formerly known as Twitter), Anthropic’s official handle announced the release of the new desktop apps. For Windows, the AI company has released separate x64 and arm64 versions of the app. The company also claims that the desktop app will offer a faster and more focused experience. It is also said to be ‘designed for deep work’.
Interested individuals can download the Mac and Windows desktop apps from here. Windows users in particular can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt + Space to quickly launch the app from any screen across the system. A 9to5Mac report also claims that the macOS app provides easy access to Anthropic’s AI assistant and the Claude 3.5 Sonnet AI model.
The latter’s access is also important. Recently, Anthropic introduced the Computer Use tool for Claude, which is powered by 3.5 Sonnet. This capability allows users to ask the AI to complete a task on the device. While the feature hasn’t been rolled out to users yet, it’s understandable why the AI company needed a special app to make the feature usable.
Computing is an agentic AI capability that allows Claude to perform complex tasks on a desktop, mimicking a human user. Interestingly, Claude can imitate keystrokes, button clicks and cursor movements using specialized software. Adding this capability with computer vision allows the AI chatbot to see information on the screen and take appropriate action to complete a task.
In addition, users can also use the voice mode feature with the desktop apps for Mac and Windows. More details about the apps, such as size, permissions required and compatible versions, were not shared by the company.
