Claude now shares memory between chat and Cowork

A project starts in a chat window. Later, someone opens Claude Cowork to turn the idea into an update for a manager or an agenda for a conference—and finds they no longer have to explain it all again. Anthropic has merged Claude’s memory systems, so information learned in chat can be available in Cowork and vice versa.

The practical difference is continuity. Cowork can already understand references from earlier conversations, including a conference’s headcount, city, and speakers, instead of treating the action phase as a blank slate. Anthropic says Claude now feels like one assistant rather than two separate products under one roof.

Memory also updates during the conversation. Claude adds topics as users chat, rather than waiting until the chat ends to summarize it, which lets newly retained information move more quickly between chat and Cowork. Users can inspect, edit, or delete anything Claude has kept.

Anthropic has placed boundaries around what is stored. Claude does not save personal or sensitive information by default, including health data, race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, politics, and gender identity. Users can turn on “include sensitive topics in memory,” and the app will notify them when a sensitive topic is saved. The company says some information—including government-issued identification, Social Security numbers, criminal history, and immigration status—will never be stored.

So what changes in practice? People using Claude to develop an idea and then act on it can switch from chat to Cowork without reconstructing the project each time. The feature is enabled by default on Free, Pro, and Max plans across web, desktop, and mobile; on iOS and Android, users need the latest app version.