Anthropic’s new mobile conversation voice mode for its large language model Claude lets it search Google Docs, Drive, Calendar and more on smartphones. Just a week after debuting two new LLMs — Claude Opus 4 and Sonnet 4 — Anthropic announced the mobile updates for its Claude AI chatbot for iOS and Android and said it is extending web search for all users on free Claude plans. While Claude’s conversational voice interface is currently available only in English and only via mobile, an API for desktop use and browser-based support are part of future plans. Amazon and Google both have investment stakes in San Francisco-based Anthropic.

“Claude 4 just got a massively useful upgrade — and it puts ChatGPT and Gemini on notice,” writes Tom’s Guide of the voice mode and web search improvements.

“Voice mode is a feature that has been seen rolling out across all of the big AI systems. ChatGPT and Gemini have both been pushing the feature heavily in recent months, especially with Gemini’s integration on Android devices,” Tom’s reports, explaining that the technology allows helpful chatbot interaction via conversation.

While OpenAI’s ChatGPT has offered voice mode since late 2023, “Claude’s new conversational mode brings it up to parity and then some, offering features OpenAI does not,” VentureBeat notes. Claude can check “Google Calendars, Gmail, and Google Docs for specific information that the chatbot will summarize and read back audibly, including upcoming appointments and presentation materials,” as illustrated in a demo video posted on X.

Anthropic offers detailed voice mode use instructions in a support post.

Engadget characterizes the voice capability as a beta test. Nonetheless, the company apparently plans to roll it out to all mobile app users over the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, of the two new LLMs, Engadget writes that “Opus 4 is a powerful coding-focused system that can use multiple tools in parallel and can run for several hours at a time, while Sonnet 4 is a hybrid reasoning model designed to move between quick queries and more complex ones.” Currently, the voice mode beta testing defaults to Sonnet 4.

Related:
Anthropic Launches Claude 4, Its Most Powerful AI Model Yet, CNBC, 5/22/25
Hidden AI Instructions Reveal How Anthropic Controls Claude 4, Ars Technica, 5/27/25
Anthropic Future-Proofs New AI Model with Rigorous Safety Rules, TechRepublic, 5/27/25
Why Anthropic’s New AI Model Sometimes Tries to ‘Snitch’, Wired, 5/28/25
Anthropic’s New AI Model Resorted to Blackmail During Testing, but It’s Also Really Good at Coding, Mashable, 5/24/25