Claude is available as a desktop app, in a browser, and on mobile, and most people default to whichever one they opened first rather than picking deliberately. The three aren't identical. Each suits a different kind of work, and knowing which is which saves real friction during a busy week.
Desktop: for sustained, file-heavy work
The desktop app is the right choice when you're working through something that takes 20 minutes or more and involves local files: reviewing a contract, drafting a report from a spreadsheet, or working through a long document edit. It keeps the window separate from your browser tabs, which matters more than it sounds for staying in one task instead of bouncing between six. Desktop is also where file drag-and-drop and multi-file review work most smoothly, since you're not fighting a browser's upload dialog for every attachment.
Web: for quick lookups and shared links
The browser version wins when you need Claude for five minutes between other browser tabs, or when you want to share a conversation link with a colleague without asking them to install anything. It's also the only option on a locked-down work laptop where you can't install new software, which is common in regulated Australian workplaces where IT controls what gets installed on company devices. If your team is spread across personal and managed laptops, web is often the lowest-friction default for everyone to start from, and it means onboarding a new hire takes minutes rather than a support ticket.
Desktop: long sessions, local file access, fewer distractions
Web: quick tasks, shareable links, no install required
Mobile: voice input, reading on the move, approving drafts between meetings
Mobile: for triage, not for drafting
Mobile Claude is best for reading what was drafted earlier and approving or tweaking it, or for voice-dictating a rough idea while walking between meetings in Sydney or Melbourne. Trying to draft a 2,000-word document on a phone screen is technically possible and rarely worth it; the value is in triage, not composition. Voice input is genuinely useful here: dictating a rough brief on the drive between job sites beats typing it one-thumbed at a red light, and it turns dead time into progress on something that would otherwise wait until the office.
Switching between them mid-task
Conversations sync across all three, so starting a document review on desktop and finishing the approval on mobile from the car park works without losing context. The friction isn't technical, it's habit: people default to whichever surface they already have open rather than the one suited to the task at hand, and that's worth correcting deliberately rather than leaving to accident, because the accidental default is usually the slowest option for the job.
The same sync also means a conversation started on a shared office desktop stays available if that person later needs to check it from home on their own laptop, provided they're logged into the same account, which removes the old habit of emailing a document to yourself just to keep working on it somewhere else.
A Brisbane bookkeeper we spoke with runs desktop for BAS prep sessions, web for quick client-email replies at her desk, and mobile only to approve overnight drafts on the train in. That split costs nothing extra, since all three surfaces come bundled with a single subscription that runs about $33 a month on the Pro plan, and it's the practical version of using the right tool for the five-minute task versus the fifty-minute one.
Security considerations for regulated teams
For businesses handling anything covered by APRA or holding client financial data, which surface staff use matters more than it first appears. A managed desktop app on a company laptop is easier for IT to control and audit than a personal mobile device logged into a work account over a home Wi-Fi network. If your business sits in a regulated sector, it's worth a short conversation with whoever owns IT policy about which surfaces are approved before a team-wide rollout, rather than leaving it to individual preference. That conversation is quick, and it avoids a messier retrofit later once habits are already set.
If you're rolling Claude out to a team and want a one-page guide on which surface to use when, that's a quick thing to build once and hand to everyone, and it tends to save more confusion than any feature explainer does.
None of the three surfaces costs extra on top of the others, so the decision is purely about fit, not budget. Pick the default that matches most of your week, then let the other two fill the gaps around it.
A short internal note covering the three surfaces, plus the security point above for regulated teams, is usually enough. Nobody needs a training session for this.
