On Tuesday, Anthropic announced it is merging the memory systems used by its chat assistant Claude and the workspace-oriented Claude Cowork. The change is intended to remove the frequent annoyance of having to re-brief the AI about information it has already been given in a different context.
What changes for users
With the update, Claude will retain what it learned in one context when you switch to another — for example, information acquired during a chat will be available when you move to Cowork. Anthropic says this makes Claude feel like a single continuous assistant rather than two separate products.
Anthropic gives a concrete example: if you developed project ideas or discussed a conference in Claude chat (details like headcount, city, and speakers), Cowork will already understand those references when you draft an update for a manager or create an agenda, so you don’t need to re-enter the same details.
Incremental memory updates and user control
Instead of summarizing a conversation at its end, Claude will now add topics to its memory as you chat, so new memories are updated and shared more quickly between chat and Cowork, even while conversations are still ongoing.
Anthropic is also exposing the contents of Claude’s memory to users: people can view, edit, or delete stored items on any topic through the app.
Sensitive data defaults and hard limits
By default, Anthropic says Claude will not store personal or sensitive categories such as health data, race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, politics, or gender identity. Users who prefer can enable storage of these categories by toggling on "include sensitive topics in memory." The app will notify users when a sensitive topic is saved.
The company also states that certain items will never be saved, including government-issued ID numbers and Social Security numbers, criminal history, immigration status, and other data that would violate its acceptable use policy.
Availability
The memory feature is enabled by default on Free, Pro, and Max plans and is available on web, desktop, and mobile. iOS and Android users must update their apps to the latest version to access the new memory behavior.
Why it matters
Combining memories and allowing users to inspect and edit stored information reduces repeated data entry and smooths the transition from research to execution. The change should improve efficiency in collaborative workflows and content creation while giving users options and restrictions around sensitive data storage.
