Claude Duet keeps working while your phone is off, and Nigerians must wait

Anthropic launched Claude Duet on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, a separate app that keeps an eye on your connected accounts, sends you a morning brief and carries out tasks in the background even when your phone or laptop is switched off. It’s a research preview for now, open by waitlist only to Claude Pro and Max subscribers in the United States, so Nigerians who pay for Claude can’t join it yet even though Claude.ai itself is officially available in Nigeria.

Duet runs on iOS, Android and the web at claude.ai, and it’s built on Claude Opus 5.5. In its announcement, Anthropic said the app is included in Pro and Max plans rather than sold separately, and that it uses the same usage limits as the rest of Claude. Its background checks count against those limits too, which matters for anyone who already hits the cap during a busy week.

An assistant that messages you first, instead of waiting to be asked

Where a regular chatbot sits idle until you type, Duet checks your connected apps every few hours and messages you only when something needs attention, and it opens the day with a short brief on what matters across those apps. You talk to it in one ongoing thread, by text or voice, and hand it jobs ranging from scheduling meetings to building dashboards, forecasts, prototypes and simple web apps.

The work happens on Duet’s own virtual machine with its own browser, which is why your devices can stay off while a task runs. Your memory, skills and connected apps carry over from your main Claude account, and Anthropic says Duet works with more than 6,000 connectors and plugins in the Claude Marketplace. For purchases, it can pay through Link, Stripe’s digital wallet, using a virtual card, or check out with Shop Pay.

It can’t send, pay or delete anything without your yes

Before Duet sends a message, makes a payment, signs a document or deletes something, Anthropic says “it shows you exactly what it’s about to do and waits for your approval.” Some actions are blocked outright, even if you approve them, including trading securities and moving money between accounts. The company also says the app “never directly sees your passwords or sign-in tokens”, and that a dedicated classifier rejects requests to share card numbers and government ID.

Anthropic is open about the rough edges. It describes Duet as an early version that may misread a thread or misjudge how urgent something is, says it’s weaker at personal errands such as booking tickets than at work tasks, and notes that it can’t yet show you the browser it’s using. Keep those limits in mind before giving it access to a business inbox.

What Nigerian Claude subscribers can use while they wait

Anthropic used the phrase “starting with US Pro and Max subscribers”, which points to a wider rollout later, but it hasn’t given a date or a list of next countries. Until Nigeria is added, the parts of Duet that come from your main account, such as memory, skills and connected apps, are still there in the regular Claude app, so time spent setting those up now isn’t wasted if Duet reaches you later.

Duet also lands in a crowded month for AI agents. OpenAI recently gave ChatGPT the ability to read your open Chrome tabs and fill in forms, and Google has been pushing Gemini tools for small business owners that are already open to free users in Nigeria. If you run a small business and want an AI to take routine admin off your hands today, those are the options you can actually test here.

Treat any social media post or WhatsApp message promising early Duet access for Nigerian accounts as a scam, because Anthropic’s announcement limits the waitlist to US subscribers and the only official places for the app are claude.ai and the iOS and Android app stores. Checking the Claude announcement page from time to time is the safest way to know when the waitlist opens beyond the US.