Claude Dispatch: Control Your Desktop AI Agent from Your Phone

You're at lunch. Your laptop is running Cowork at your desk. You pull out your phone, type "check if the report is done," and Claude responds with the status. That's Dispatch.

Key Takeaways

• Dispatch lets you message your desktop Claude session from your phone
• It works with both Cowork and Claude Code
• You don't need GitHub or any special setup — just your Claude account
• It launched in March 2026 as a research preview, so expect some rough edges
• It's about 50/50 reliability right now, but when it works, it's genuinely useful

What You Need

• Claude Pro or Max subscription
• Claude Desktop App running on your computer
• Claude mobile app (iOS or Android) on your phone
• Both logged into the same Claude account

How It Works

Dispatch isn't a separate feature you install. It's a connection between your desktop Claude session and your phone.

On your desktop, open Cowork or Code and type /rc (short for Remote Control). This opens a persistent thread that your phone can connect to.

On your phone, open the Claude app and go to the Code tab. You'll see your active desktop session. Tap it, and you're in. Type anything, and it goes straight to the Claude session running on your desktop.

Your desktop does the actual work — reading files, running code, moving things around. Your phone is just the remote control.

Open Cowork on your desktop, type /rc, then open the Claude app on your phone and switch to the Code tab.

Three Things That Surprised Me

💡 You can type from either device. Once connected, both your desktop keyboard and phone can send messages to the same session. This is great when you want to start something on your phone, then sit down at your desk and continue.

💡 Files stay on your computer. Nothing gets uploaded to the cloud for Dispatch to work. Your phone is sending text commands; your desktop is doing the actual file operations. If your internet goes down mid-task, the desktop keeps working — you just can't see the updates on your phone until you reconnect.

💡 It works for Claude Code too, not just Cowork. Developers can start a coding session, leave for a meeting, and check progress or give new instructions from their phone.

What Doesn't Work Well Yet

⚠️ Connection drops. This is a research preview, and the connection between phone and desktop isn't always stable. About half the time, I've had to reconnect.

⚠️ No push notifications. When Claude finishes a task, your phone doesn't get a notification. You have to manually check.

⚠️ Don't confuse it with Claude Code on the web. If you open claude.ai/code, it asks you to connect GitHub — that's a different feature (cloud-based Claude Code). Dispatch via /rc doesn't need GitHub. They're completely separate things.

When to Use Dispatch

The sweet spot: you started a long-running task on your desktop and want to check on it or give follow-up instructions without going back to your desk.

Not the sweet spot: doing complex work entirely from your phone. The mobile interface is too small for reviewing long outputs or managing multi-step tasks. Use it as a remote control, not as a primary workspace.

Setup Steps

1. Make sure Claude Desktop is running with an active Cowork or Code session
2. Type /rc in the session
3. On your phone, open the Claude app
4. Go to the Code tab
5. Your active desktop session should appear — tap to connect
6. Start typing commands from your phone