Anthropic updates Claude voice mode with more capable models

Anthropic, competing with OpenAI’s latest updates, has improved the voice mode of its AI assistant Claude. The company announced that users can now select between three models: Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku. Previously, the voice mode only used the Haiku model, which provided quick responses but was not suited for complex tasks. With the new update, the voice mode automatically uses the last model used in text chat and its fastest version.

Enhanced conversations and integration

Anthropic says the updated voice mode can support longer conversations, such as providing feedback on a user’s communication style, helping to prepare a client pitch, or brainstorming product market research. A key new feature is the ability to integrate with other apps, including Gmail, Google Calendar, Slack, Canva, and Notion. This means users can ask Claude to update a meeting slot, draft an email, or create a document in Notion. This marks a significant difference from OpenAI’s voice mode, which, while improved in conversational style, still cannot use different tools to get work done.

Multilingual support and availability

Earlier this year, Anthropic added multilingual support to Claude’s voice mode in beta. Users can now speak in various languages, but they must manually specify the language. Supported languages include English, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazilian), and Spanish (Latin America/Spain).

The new voice mode is available to all users in beta across platforms. However, free users are restricted to using the Haiku model with only one connected app. Anthropic did not make any changes to the voice model itself with this release and has not detailed its voice stack. This means that, unlike OpenAI’s release, users may not find conversational improvements such as better interruption handling.