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Claude Cowork: From Chrome Sidebar Rebuild to Full Rollout

Anthropic rebuilt its Chrome sidebar into the full Cowork session mode on Aug 13, then rolled it out to all paid users across web and mobile days later, enabling cross-device task coordination.

2026-08-13 ~ 2026-08-19 · 2 episodes · 7 posts

Episode 1 · Anthropic Upgrades Claude in Chrome to Full Cowork with Cross-Device Sync (2026-08-13, 5 posts)

On August 13, Anthropic officially announced that it had restructured the Claude sidebar extension in Chrome and upgraded it into a full Cowork experience. Conversation history, skills, and connectors are now tied to the user's account, allowing sessions to continue seamlessly across browser tabs, the desktop app, the web client, and mobile apps. According to a repost by @EricBuess, the feature is currently available to Max and Team users.

Confirmed

  • Full Cowork upgrade: The Claude sidebar in Chrome now runs full Cowork sessions that stay consistent across desktop, web, and mobile, resolving the earlier limitation where session state was locked to a single device.
  • Account-bound state: Conversations are saved under the user's account rather than a single device, and skills and connectors configured by the user also work in the browser.
  • Availability: Per @EricBuess, the cross-device sync is currently open to Max and Team users.
  • Press coverage and community reaction: As relayed by @CoolBiscotti1232 citing a 9to5Mac report, community users are excited about the update; one user called it very practical while complaining about unexpected issues previously seen in the Chrome sidebar.

Why it matters

The upgrade keeps the Claude experience coherent across every platform: sessions are no longer trapped in the local browser, and skills and connectors are now usable there too, closing the gap between the browser extension and other clients. For users working across multiple devices, Cowork becomes a far more complete experience.

Episode 2 · Anthropic Rolls Out Claude Cowork Across Mobile and Web (2026-08-18, 2 posts)

Anthropic has opened Claude Cowork to all paid plans on mobile and web, with Max users getting early access. The Chrome sidebar has also been upgraded to Cowork sessions, enabling cross-device task collaboration with saved history, skills, and connectors.