Claude's velocity is unparalleled

Claude's velocity relative to pretty much everybody else. Prompt by Troy Angrignon. Image by Gemini.

Unless you live under a rock, you know that Anthropic is on a tear and Claude is currently the darling model AND stack. Here is a list of feature announcements and releases from Jan 1 2026 through to April 22, 2026. I've never seen this kind of velocity before from any company.

They released 36 major items across three surfaces in 16 weeks — roughly one every three days.

Anthropic Releases: Jan 1 – Apr 22, 2026

Every major feature released across Claude (chat), Claude Cowork, and Claude Code, in chronological order. Each entry is tagged with the surface(s) it affects.

Tags: [Claude] = Claude chat (claude.ai, mobile, desktop chat) · [Cowork] = Claude Cowork · [Code] = Claude Code

January 2026

Jan 7 · [Code] — Claude Code 2.1.0 ships (1,096 commits). Shift+Enter for newlines with zero setup, hooks declared directly in agent and skill frontmatter, Skills gain forked context, hot reload, custom agent support, and /<skill> invocation, agents no longer stop when you deny a tool use, configurable response language, wildcard tool permissions (e.g. Bash(*-h*)), and /teleport to hand a session off to claude.ai/code.
Jan 12 · [Claude] — Health and fitness data on iOS and Android. Claude reads activity, sleep, and workout data and returns native charts. Pro/Max, US-only; Android requires Health Connect and Android 14+.
Jan 12 · [Claude] — HIPAA-ready Enterprise plans for organizations processing PHI through Claude.
Jan 12 · [Cowork] — Cowork research preview launches on Claude Desktop (macOS only) for Max plans. Runs locally in an isolated VM with access to local files and MCP integrations.
Jan 14 · [Code] — MCP Tool Search (lazy loading). Auto-enables when MCP tool descriptions exceed ~10% of context; loads tool schemas on-demand instead of upfront. ~85% context-token reduction reported by Anthropic engineering.
Jan 16 · [Cowork] — Cowork research preview expanded to Pro plans (macOS only).
Jan 16 · [Code] — Claude Code access bundled with every Team plan standard seat (no longer premium-only).
Jan 16 · [Claude] [Code] — Opus 4 and 4.1 deprecated from the Claude model selector and Claude Code.

February 2026

Feb 4 · [Claude] — "Claude is a space to think" — Anthropic formally commits that Claude will remain ad-free: no sponsored links, no advertiser influence on responses, no third-party product placements users didn't ask for. Published days after OpenAI announced ads for ChatGPT Free/Go users in AU/NZ/CA.
Feb 5 · [Claude] — Claude Opus 4.6 launch.
Feb 5 · [Claude] — Claude for PowerPoint add-in launches.
Feb 5 · [Claude] — Claude for Excel upgraded to Opus 4.6 with native Excel operations including pivot table editing and conditional formatting.
Feb 12 · [Claude] [Cowork] [Code] — Self-serve Enterprise plans. Previously sales-only; now purchasable directly on the website. Single seat type covers Claude, Cowork, and Claude Code.
Feb 13 · [Claude] [Code] — Enterprise Analytics API. Programmatic access to usage and engagement data for Claude and Claude Code Remote, aggregated per organization per day.
Feb 17 · [Claude] — Claude Sonnet 4.6 launch. Full upgrade across coding, computer use, long-context reasoning, agent planning, knowledge work, and design; 1M token context window in beta.
Feb 24 · [Cowork] — Cowork plugin marketplace and admin controls for Team and Enterprise plans.
Feb 24 · [Code] — Remote Control research preview. Run a local Claude Code session on your machine and steer it from claude.ai/code or the Claude iOS/Android app. Session stays local; only chat messages flow through. Requires Claude Code v2.1.51+; Pro/Max; off by default on Team/Enterprise until admin enables.
Feb 25 · [Cowork] — Scheduled tasks in Cowork (recurring and on-demand), plus a new Customize section in Claude Desktop grouping skills, plugins, and connectors.

March 2026

Mar 2 · [Claude] — Memory for free users. Chat-history memory extended beyond paid tiers.
Mar 11 · [Claude] — Claude for Excel and PowerPoint gain cross-app context sharing, skills support, and the ability to connect via LLM gateway for Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud Vertex AI, or Microsoft Foundry.
Mar 12 · [Claude] — Custom visuals in chat. Claude creates inline charts, diagrams, and other visualizations within responses.
Mar 17 · [Cowork] — Persistent agent thread to control Cowork from Claude Desktop or iOS/Android (research preview, Pro/Max).
Mar 23 · [Cowork] [Code] — Computer use research preview in Cowork and Claude Code Desktop (Pro/Max). Claude can open files, run dev tools, click, and navigate your screen. Also improves Dispatch for away-from-keyboard work.
Mar 23–27 · [Code] — Auto mode lands in research preview (v2.1.83–v2.1.85). A classifier handles permission prompts so safe actions run without interruption and risky ones get blocked — a middle ground between approving everything and --dangerously-skip-permissions. Same week: PR auto-fix on Web, transcript search with /, native PowerShell tool for Windows, and conditional if hooks.
Mar 25 · [Claude] — Interactive apps in iOS and Android. The Claude mobile app connects to fully interactive connectors — live charts, sketched diagrams, shareable visuals rendered in the conversation.
Mar 30 – Apr 3 · [Code] — Computer use in the CLI research preview (v2.1.86–v2.1.91). Also this week: /powerup interactive lessons, flicker-free alt-screen rendering, per-tool MCP result-size override up to 500K, and plugin executables on the Bash tool's PATH.

April 2026

Apr 6–10 · [Code] — Ultraplan enters early preview (v2.1.92–v2.1.101). Draft a plan in the cloud from the CLI, review and comment on it in a web editor, then run it remotely or pull it back local. Same window: the Monitor tool streams background events into the conversation, /loop self-paces when interval is omitted, /team-onboarding packages setup into a replayable guide, and /autofix-pr turns on PR auto-fix from the terminal.
Apr 9 · [Cowork] — Cowork general availability on macOS and Windows through Claude Desktop. Ships with:
- Cowork data in the Enterprise Analytics API
- Usage analytics dashboard
- OpenTelemetry support
Apr 9 · [Claude] [Cowork] [Code] — Role-based access controls for Enterprise. Admins can organize users into groups (manually or via SCIM) and assign custom roles controlling which Claude capabilities members can use. Includes group spend limits.
Apr 14 · [Code] — Claude Code desktop app redesign (Mac and Windows) for all Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise users. Multi-session sidebar with Git-worktree isolation between sessions, drag-and-drop pane layout, integrated terminal, in-app file editor, expanded HTML and PDF preview, diff viewer rebuilt for performance on large changesets, side chats via ⌘+;, three view modes (Verbose/Normal/Summary), SSH support extended to macOS, and response streaming. (Note: informally called "2.0" by some commentators, but actual version is in the 2.1.x line; Claude Code 2.0 shipped in September 2025.)
Apr 14 · [Code] — Routines research preview. Saved Claude Code automations that run on Anthropic's cloud infrastructure without your laptop being on. Three trigger types:
- Scheduled — cron-like (hourly/nightly/weekly). Existing /schedule CLI tasks auto-migrate.
- API — each routine gets a dedicated endpoint and auth token for wiring into Datadog, CI/CD, internal tools.
- Webhook — starting with GitHub; one session per matching PR.
- Daily limits: Pro 5, Max 15, Team/Enterprise 25.
Apr 16 · [Claude] [Code] — Claude Opus 4.7 launch. Stronger software engineering on long-running tasks, higher-resolution vision (up to 2,576px / 3.75MP with 1:1 coordinate mapping), new tokenizer (1.0–1.35× more tokens than Opus 4.6), breaking API changes (removes temperature/top_p/top_k, thinking omitted by default).
Apr 16 · [Code] — Opus 4.7 brings a bundle of Claude Code additions:
- xhigh effort level between high and max, now default in Claude Code across all plans
- /effort interactive slider for navigating levels
- /ultrareview — dedicated review session that reads changes and flags bugs and design issues (3 free per billing cycle for Pro/Max)
- Auto mode GA for Max subscribers (was research-preview for Teams/Enterprise; no longer requires --enable-auto-mode)
- Task budgets (public beta) for setting a token spend cap per session
- "Auto (match terminal)" theme that follows terminal dark/light mode
Apr 17 · [Claude] — Claude Design launches under the new Anthropic Labs sub-brand. Research preview for Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise; powered by Opus 4.7. Collaborate with Claude on prototypes, slides, and one-pagers via conversation, inline comments, direct edits, or custom sliders; export to PDF, URL, PPTX, or Canva; can read a team's codebase and design files to apply an existing design system.
Apr 20 · [Claude] — Amazon–Anthropic expanded partnership. Amazon invests a fresh $5B (with up to $20B more tied to commercial milestones), bringing total Amazon commitment to up to $33B. Anthropic commits $100B+ to AWS over 10 years and secures up to 5GW of Trainium2–Trainium4 capacity. Run-rate revenue disclosed at over $30B (up from ~$9B at end of 2025). Also announced: Claude Platform on AWS — the full Claude Platform accessible directly within AWS accounts with no separate credentials, contracts, or billing.
Apr 20 · [Cowork] — Live Artifacts. In Cowork, Claude builds dashboards, reports, and trackers that connect to your apps and files and auto-refresh with current data every time you open them. Saved to a dedicated Live Artifacts tab with version history, persistent across sessions, and independent of the chat they were created in. Available on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise.
Apr 22 · [Code] — Claude Code v2.1.117 (today). Forked subagents on external builds via CLAUDE_CODE_FORK_SUBAGENT=1, agent frontmatter mcpServers loaded for main-thread agent sessions via --agent, /model pins persist across restarts with startup header showing pin source, and /resume offers to summarize stale large sessions.