Claude from Anthropic speaks: conversational mode and web search for all arrives

Anthropic continues to grind out novelties. Following the recent launch of Claude Sonnet 4 and Opus 4, the Californian start-up announced two new features for its AI assistant: voice mode in beta for mobile apps and the extension of web search to all free users. Two updates that position Claude in direct competition with the big names in conversational artificial intelligence, an industry increasingly driven by multimodal interfaces.

The new voice function will be available in the coming weeks on iOS and Android, initially only in English. As is already the case with OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini and Perplexity, Claude will also allow alternating voice and text inputs while maintaining the context of the conversation. The interface shows on-screen highlights during voice responses, facilitating follow-up - especially useful in more complex interactions. Users will be able to choose between five different voices, activated via a wave icon in the input bar.

Here Anthropic plays an interesting card. For those who pay for a subscription, Claude integrates directly with Gmail, Google Calendar and (for companies) Google Docs. This capability turns Claude into a contextual assistant that can access emails and appointments to provide personalised answers. Translated: you can ask "what's my schedule tomorrow?" and Claude will check the calendar, or "summarise my most important emails" and he will fish directly from the mail. A nice competitive advantage, at least on paper. ChatGPT for now does not offer such direct integrations with the Google ecosystem.

In parallel, Anthropic democratised access to web search by extending it to all free users. Unlike ChatGPT, which requires manual activation by means of a dedicated button, Claude implements an automatic approach: the AI decides autonomously when to search based on the type of query received.

As always, there are usage thresholds. Free users have about 20-30 voice messages per session, while Pro subscribers have extended access (typically up to 45 messages every 5 hours, according to standard platform policies). Regarding the extension to other languages, including Italian, Anthropic has not specified a timeframe for language expansion, which is crucial for international expansion.