The 6 Claude Features That Put You Ahead of 99% of AI Users

Most people treat Claude like a smarter search box: ask a question, get an answer, move on. That’s useful—but it’s only a small slice of what Claude can actually do.

If you understand the six core Claude features, you can turn it from a simple chat assistant into a real digital teammate that thinks, builds, and even works directly on your computer. Here’s how each feature works, when to use it, and how they all fit together.

1. Claude Chat: Your Thinking and Research Space

Claude chat is the version most people know. You open claude.ai (or the mobile or desktop app), type a question, and get an answer. Everything syncs in the cloud, so your conversations stay consistent across devices.

Think of Claude chat as your default space for:

• Quick questions and answers
• Brainstorming ideas and outlining projects
• Research and summarizing long content
• Drafting emails, posts, or documents
• Talking through a problem or decision

If you’re new to Claude, start here. It’s the foundation that every other feature builds on—but it’s only the beginning of what Claude can do.

2. Claude Co-Work: Claude That Actually Works on Your Computer

Claude co-work is where things start to feel like real automation. Instead of just chatting in the browser, co-work runs as a desktop app that can interact with your actual files.

With co-work, Claude can:

• See and open files on your computer
• Edit documents and save new versions
• Create new files and organize folders
• Run multi-step tasks without you manually copying and pasting

This is built for non-coders. If you’ve ever thought, “I wish AI would just do this for me instead of explaining how,” that’s exactly what co-work is for.

Some practical examples:

• Email triage: Let Claude read your inbox, summarize what matters, draft replies to important messages, and flag or delete junk.

• Desktop cleanup: Ask it to scan your desktop, sort files into folders, and rename things so they’re easier to find.

• Trip prep: Tell Claude you’re traveling soon, have it research outfits or packing lists, and generate a clean PDF with links and recommendations so you can buy or prepare everything quickly.

Use co-work whenever a task involves real files, folders, or workflows on your computer—not just text in a chat window.

3. Dispatch: Remote-Control Claude From Your Phone

Dispatch connects your phone to Claude co-work on your desktop. You can assign a task from your phone, Claude does the heavy lifting on your home or office computer, and then sends the finished result back to you.

Key idea: your phone becomes a remote control for the Claude running on your desktop.

This is especially useful when:

• You’re commuting or at a coffee shop and want work done on your home machine
• You remember a task on the go and want to offload it immediately
• You want one continuous conversation that follows you from phone to laptop

You might, for example, start a research task or file-processing job from your phone, then sit down at your desk later and pick up the exact same thread—with all the context and memory intact.

4. Claude Code: Turn Ideas Into Real Software

If co-work is about doing tasks on your computer, Claude code is about building things—real software, not just snippets.

Claude code can run in your terminal or inside the Claude desktop app. You describe what you want to build, and Claude handles the heavy lifting:

• Writing the code
• Structuring the project
• Running tests
• Debugging and fixing errors
• Iterating based on your feedback

You don’t have to be a developer to use it. If you can clearly describe what you want, Claude code can often build it. People are already using it to create full AI agents, internal tools, and small apps just by explaining the idea in plain language.

Combined with other tools, this is how non-technical users move from “AI for content” to “AI for building systems.” If that shift interests you, it pairs nicely with the mindset in The 3 Levels of AI: Why 99% of People Are Stuck at Level One.

5. Plugins: Prebuilt Superpowers for Claude

Plugins are like an app store for Claude. Each plugin is a bundle of tools or connectors that gives Claude a new capability without you having to build anything yourself.

Plugins work inside Claude co-work and Claude code. Once installed, they let Claude talk to and control other services.

For example, you could:

• Install a Slack plugin so Claude can read channels, summarize discussions, or draft replies
• Install a design plugin so Claude can create visuals or assets it couldn’t produce before
• Connect other business tools so Claude can pull data, update records, or trigger workflows

Use plugins when you want Claude to integrate with tools you already use, but you don’t want to write custom code or set up complex APIs yourself.

6. Skills: Teach Claude How You Want Work Done

Skills are simple but powerful. A skill is basically a folder with written instructions—a step-by-step guide that teaches Claude how to do one specific job exactly the way you like it done.

Every time that job comes up, Claude reads those instructions and follows them. That means you don’t have to rewrite the same long prompt or process over and over.

Skills work everywhere Claude works:

• Claude chat
• Claude co-work
• Claude code

Some great uses for skills:

• A standard way to write your newsletter or blog posts
• Your preferred format for meeting notes or summaries
• A checklist for how to clean and organize a dataset
• A repeatable process for analyzing competitors or products

You can create your own skills or use ones shared by others. Either way, they’re best for any task you expect to repeat more than once.

How All 6 Features Fit Together

Here’s a quick way to remember what each part of Claude is for:

• Claude chat – For thinking, writing, and exploring ideas.
• Claude co-work – For getting real work done on your computer with your files.
• Dispatch – For assigning and tracking tasks from your phone while Claude works on your desktop.
• Claude code – For building real software and tools from your ideas.
• Plugins – For extending Claude into other apps and services without coding.
• Skills – For teaching Claude your exact processes so it can repeat them consistently.

You don’t need to master all six at once. Start with the one that matches your current goal:

• Want to think better and faster? Lean on Claude chat and a few well-designed skills.
• Want to automate your day-to-day work? Explore co-work, dispatch, and plugins.
• Want to build tools and agents? Spend time in Claude code and layer in skills for repeatable patterns.

As you stack these features together, Claude stops being “just another chatbot” and starts looking more like a flexible AI teammate. If you want to keep pushing what’s possible with AI tools, you may also like this breakdown of advanced video workflows in how to make better AI videos than 99% of people.