November 1st, 2024

Anthropic's Claude AI Chatbot Now Has a Mac App, but It's an Electron Turd

Anthropic launched a desktop app for its AI chatbot Claude, but it faces criticism for poor design and performance, with users preferring the web version over the inferior desktop experience.

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Anthropic's Claude AI Chatbot Now Has a Mac App, but It's an Electron Turd

Anthropic has released a desktop app for its AI chatbot, Claude, available for both Mac and Windows users. However, the app has received criticism for being a poorly designed Electron application that lacks the native feel and functionality expected from macOS software. Users have reported issues such as a non-standard user interface, choppy animations, and the absence of basic features like autofill in the login field. In contrast, OpenAI's ChatGPT app is praised for its native design and superior user experience, including a dedicated search mode that Claude currently lacks. Critics suggest that users would be better off using Claude as a web app rather than the desktop version due to its performance and design shortcomings. The overall sentiment indicates that while Claude may have advanced in terms of AI capabilities, its application experience falls short compared to competitors like ChatGPT.

- Anthropic's Claude AI chatbot now has a desktop app for Mac and Windows.

- The app has been criticized for its poor design and performance as an Electron application.

- OpenAI's ChatGPT app is considered superior in terms of user experience and functionality.

- Users are advised to use Claude as a web app instead of the desktop version.

- Despite advancements in AI, Claude's application experience is lacking compared to competitors.

Link Icon 2 comments
By @esperent - 6 months
Such an obvious ragebait article. There's a better discussion over here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42007649

By @anshumankmr - 6 months
It also is bad that there is no Firefox equivalent of Electron either. That could have helped alleviate some of the problems.