Claude’s Chrome Side Panel Now Carries Full Cowork Sessions Across Every Device

Anthropic announced Wednesday that the Claude in Chrome side panel, previously a standalone extension disconnected from Claude’s other apps, now runs as a genuine Claude Cowork session.

This means conversations started in a browser tab are saved to a user’s full Claude history and can be picked up later on desktop, web, or mobile.

The change is live today for Max and Team subscribers, with a Pro tier rollout planned over the coming weeks. It closes a gap that had quietly limited how useful Claude’s browser extension could actually be since it first rolled out to all paid users late last year.

Fixing a Split That Never Made Sense

Anthropic’s own blog post was candid about the previous setup: sessions in the side panel were separate from those in the Claude apps, so context and conversations didn’t carry over, forcing users doing real work in a browser to essentially start over when switching to desktop.

That’s an awkward limitation for a product built around long-running, multi-step tasks, since browser work rarely happens in isolation from everything else on a computer.

9to5Mac framed the fix around portability, noting that the update continues Anthropic’s push to make Claude’s work follow users across surfaces.

This includes recent additions such as live iOS app testing in Claude Code for Mac and new Opus 4.8 controls for longer-running work across more of its products and devices, building directly on the momentum from Claude Cowork’s recent expansion to web and mobile. 

Where Claude in Chrome Fills Gaps Official Connectors Can’t

Engadget’s reporting highlighted why this matters beyond convenience: while Anthropic has built official connectors for many professional and lifestyle services, Claude in Chrome can access tools without native integrations.

This encompasses internal dashboards, legacy systems, vendor portals, and company-built systems that were never updated.

However, this differs from a typical API connector because the target service does not need to build anything or grant Anthropic special access. Claude simply operates the page through the browser the user is already logged into.

Engadget also noted that Claude Code, which recently doubled its rate limits, is already available in the same Chrome plugin, making Wednesday’s update more about completing Cowork’s browser integration than introducing an entirely new capability.

The Trust Question This Update Doesn’t Fully Answer

The key tension is between what makes this feature useful and what makes it risky, and Anthropic is open about that tradeoff. 

The company identifies prompt injection as the chief AI risk: malicious instructions hidden in a webpage, email, or document could redirect Claude without the user noticing.

Anthropic says a new verification check reviews consequential actions, such as form submissions or file downloads, against the original request before allowing them through. 

That’s a reasonable mitigation, but it also shows why letting Claude “act on your behalf using your existing logins” across unvetted internal tools is both attractive to enterprises and difficult to secure.

Anthropic also acknowledges that these measures reduce but cannot eliminate the hidden risk. 

As Claude in Chrome becomes more capable of operating unfamiliar and unofficial systems, its attack surface grows, particularly for the prompt injection threats Anthropic is still working to defend against.

Source: A helping hand across all your tabs