The integration of AI and everyday office software is entering a new phase. Anthropic recently officially announced a major upgrade to Claude's interactive connectors. Building on the previous live mini view, the new version lets users open tools directly beside the conversation in supported connectors, and even expand them to full screen, allowing Claude to work side by side with users and directly modify content. The feature is currently rolling out gradually to all plans on the web and desktop apps.

Core Experience Upgrade: From Side Preview to Side-by-Side Full-Screen Work

This upgrade breaks the previous disconnected experience between the chat window and the tool interface, bringing several key changes:

AI directly makes edits: Users can have Claude directly modify the open page, spreadsheet row, or file. When Claude makes changes, the edits appear in the tool in real time, users can keep working alongside it, and they can confirm the changes in a way similar to approving connector actions.

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Full-screen and side-by-side workflows: The entire tool can be opened next to the conversation, and users can hide the chat when needed or switch to full screen. For example, when using tools like Confluence or Notion, users get the full editor logged into their own account, rather than a limited preview interface.

No-prompt direct invocation: Users do not need to write complex Claude prompts; they can ask the AI for help directly on the same screen.

Pinned tools and quick access: Users can arrange their most-used tools alongside artifacts, with one-click access via the sidebar and plus menu.

Initial Supported Tool Ecosystem and Expanded Use Cases

Currently, the feature initially covers a small set of mainstream tools in the directory, including Asana, Canva, Carta, Dropbox, monday.com, Smartsheet, Vercel, and Webflow. Specific use cases for each tool in Claude include:

Adobe: Lets AI retouch and edit photos and add effects, and highlight, edit, and redact PDF files.

Atlassian: Open Confluence pages next to the chat, let Claude write and edit, and watch the changes in real time.

Box: Open files next to the chat to make edits, and compare different versions side by side before keeping changes.

HubSpot: Prioritize sales pipeline tasks and follow-ups, and execute them directly in Claude.

Notion: Build while you chat, or edit Notion docs and databases yourself without leaving Claude.

In addition, Figma, Harvey, and Shopify are also currently building related integrations, and the company is encouraging more developers to join this ecosystem.

For Developers: Building an Open Ecosystem on MCP Apps

On the developer ecosystem side, these interactive connectors run on MCP Apps. As an open extension of the Model Context Protocol (MCP), it allows MCP servers to bring their own interfaces directly into AI applications.

Notably, an MCP App built by a developer is not limited to Claude; it can also run in any AI application that supports the extension. As Claude opens up more capabilities such as app tools and embedded sites, developers' full applications can now run directly within Claude. These capabilities are currently in public preview for developers, and developers can start building with the relevant documentation.

Permissions and Administrator Settings

For enterprise users, if an organization has already allowed all tools for a connector, the connector's new features will appear automatically when launched. Administrators can still flexibly restrict specific tool permissions for connectors, just as before.