Dispatch
Talk to Cowork from anywhere.
Phase 2 set Cowork up on your computer. Phase 3 is about making Cowork useful when you're not at your computer — which, as a mom, is most of the time.
Dispatch is the feature that does this. You message Cowork from the Claude app on your phone — by typing or talking — and Cowork on your desktop receives it, does the work, and sends the result back to your phone. Your laptop stays where it is. You stay wherever you are. The work happens.
What Dispatch is actually doing
- You send a message from your phone (typed or voice).
- Cowork on your desktop reads it, treats it like a task in whatever Project you sent it to.
- Cowork does the work using your files, connectors, and Project context — the same as if you were sitting at the computer.
- The reply comes back to the same conversation on your phone.
It's not "Cowork on your phone." It's "Cowork at your desk, controlled by your phone."
Setup is almost nothing.
If you finished Phase 1, you already installed the Claude mobile app and signed in. That's most of the setup right there. Two things to check:
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Same account on phone and desktop
Open the Claude app on your phone. Tap your profile or settings and confirm the account email matches the one you're using on the desktop. Same Google / Apple / email method = same Projects = Dispatch works.
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Know how to reach Dispatch in the mobile app
Look for Dispatch in the Claude mobile app — it's its own section, not something inside an individual Project. When you open Dispatch, there's no Project picker. You have to tell Cowork which Project to send the task to inside the message itself. We'll show you how in the next screen.
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Make sure your computer is awake when you'll need Dispatch
Same constraint as scheduled tasks — the desktop has to be awake and Claude Desktop has to be running for Cowork to receive your messages. If you'll dispatch from the carpool line at 3pm, your laptop needs to be on at 3pm. The Amphetamine / Caffeine / PowerToys Awake trick from the Pro & Cowork setup lesson helps if you want to dispatch while your laptop is closed.
Three moves to try this week.
The fastest way to get a feel for Dispatch is to use it for three things you'd otherwise do yourself — the kinds of small, in-the-moment chores that pile up because you can't get to your computer fast enough.
Move 1 — Snap a picture and send it.
School papers, doctor forms, receipts, anything that comes home as paper. Don't try to remember it; don't pile it on the counter. Take a photo with your phone, open Dispatch, attach the photo, and send something like this:
Notice the lead phrase: "Send this to Family Manager". That's how you name which Project the task should run in. Cowork reads the photo, extracts what matters, and handles the calendar piece. You move on with your day.
Move 2 — Paste a chaotic text thread.
Soccer carpool, birthday party logistics, the parent group chat that's three days deep on who's bringing what. Copy the whole thread, open Dispatch, paste, and send:
Cowork parses the mess and gives you the answer. No more scrolling back through 47 messages trying to remember if you said yes.
Move 3 — Voice-dump while driving.
The pickup line, the grocery run, the in-between five minutes. Open Dispatch on your phone, tap the microphone icon to start voice-to-text (Cowork will transcribe what you say as you talk), and just go:
Cowork sorts it. You don't have to remember any of it by the time you get home.
Don't think of these as "the three moves."
Think of them as starting examples. Dispatch is general — anything you'd ask Cowork at your desk, you can ask from your phone. These are just three examples of moves that come up for moms in motion.
A few things to remember.
Quick rules of the road
- Always name the Project in your message. There's no Project picker in the mobile Dispatch UI — Cowork picks up the Project name from your message. Family stuff: "Send this to Family Manager..." Kid-specific (Phase 4): "Send this to Kid Life..." Money: "Send this to Money Command Center..." If you forget to name a Project, Cowork will either ask or pick a default — naming it explicitly gets you the right context immediately.
- Voice-to-text works in Dispatch — full voice mode doesn't. Tap the microphone icon on your phone's keyboard or in the Dispatch input, speak, and Cowork will transcribe what you say as you talk. Send it like any text message. But Cowork replies in text, not out loud. Full voice mode (the phone-call experience where Claude reads its reply aloud back to you, from Install + Voice Mode) only works in regular Claude chat, not Dispatch. So Dispatch is great for hands-busy capture, but if you want spoken-back replies, use Claude chat instead. One tradeoff to know: Claude chat can't touch your files or run tasks in your Cowork Projects — it's a regular conversation, not an agent. Good for thinking out loud, asking questions, or general brainstorming; not for getting work done on your computer.
- The ask-Claude-first habit applies. Don't dispatch a description of what to do; dispatch the thing to do. Not "remind me to call the dentist" — "call the dentist's office and book me a crown appointment if you can reach them by phone or web." (If Cowork can't actually do the latter, it'll tell you and offer the next best thing.)
- If Cowork can't do it, push back. Don't take the first "no" — ask if there's a connector or tool that would unlock it. Often there is.
Next: The Brain Dump pattern.
Dispatch handles in-the-moment stuff. The Brain Dump pattern is for when you have a head full of everything — to-dos, ideas, questions, things to add to the grocery list — and you just want it sorted into categories so you can put it down. Voice or text. Next lesson.
Continue to The Brain Dump Pattern →