I Tried Claude's New App Integrations, With Mixed Results

Claude's plug-ins for third-party services, known as connectors, have previously covered work-focused apps such as Gmail and Slack. Now, it's adding a whole host of lifestyle apps to its Connectors catalog, including Spotify, Uber, Tripadvisor, Audible, Instacart, Intuit TurboTax, and AllTrails.

There are more connectors on the way as well, Anthropic says, with the aim that you can do more inside the Claude chatbot interface. It's not dissimilar to the ChatGPT app store, which lets you add apps such as Photoshop and Apple Music. But do these plug-ins really offer the convenience that Claude claims? And is the experience any better than just using the apps themselves?

Finding and adding connectors in Claude

The connectors directory isn't new, but there are now many more lifestyle options in it: Head to the connectors page to browse through what's available, or click the + (plus) button on the prompt box in the Claude web interface and choose Connectors > Add connector from the pop-up menu.

Each connector listing comes with a description of what the tool does and how it works, and once you've added a new connector you'll be returned to the main Claude interface. To use a connector, you just namecheck it in a prompt—there's no need to select it or even @ mention it, because Claude will figure out what you're referring to.

There are now many more connectors to choose from. Credit: Lifehacker

On the first run of a new connector, you'll be asked to give permission for the AI to connect to the app, using your login credentials. This works in the same way as most other plug-ins: You get a list of the permissions that Claude will have inside the app you're linking to, and you can then either confirm or reject the connection.

To manage connectors and the permissions Claude has inside them, click the + (plus) button in the prompt box, then pick Connectors > Manage connectors. With Spotify, for example, there are separate permissions for accessing details of what you're currently playing, searching through the Spotify library, and creating playlists—you can enable or disable each of these permissions separately.

Spotify was the first connector I tried, as it matches a similar one inside ChatGPT. I asked what the most popular Radiohead song was on Spotify, which it got wrong, and then requested a playlist of "hidden gems" and "lesser-known tracks" for R.E.M.—which surfaced such deep cuts as "Shiny Happy People" and "Man on the Moon" (two of the band's biggest hits).

Credit: Lifehacker

Not the best of starts, but some other playlist prompts—for chill-out jazz, for instrumental post-rock, for one-hit wonders of the '90s—worked better. I can imagine playing around with some of these playlist options when I don't really know the artists I'm interested in and aren't too concerned with specifics.

You can't play the playlists inside Claude, though—you have to jump to Spotify to hear anything longer than a preview. And considering there are already so many ways to get AI-powered playlists (including inside Spotify itself), I'm not sure this Claude plug-in really adds all that much, even if AI can be trusted to curate music (which remains debatable).

You can use Claude to help find Ubers, hotels, and hiking trails

I experimented with several other new connectors in Claude. When it comes to Uber, you're able to look up the current pricing for a ride, so you'll see an approximate ETA, how much the journey will cost you, and the travel options available. It's helpful, up to a point, but it's not all that much more convenient than just checking the app—and Claude always hands off the actual searching and booking to the dedicated Uber app.

The Wyndham Hotels and Resorts connector was promising, not just bringing up results for hotels in a location, but also letting me compare pricing, user reviews, and features—a pool, a gym, free parking, and anything else you might be looking for. It's this kind of searching and summarizing AIs like Claude can be really good at.

Claude asks for permission before connecting to apps. Credit: Lifehacker

As far as I could tell by cross-referencing on the web, Claude didn't make any mistakes when weighing up the differences between my hotel picks, but I'm still not sure I'm ready to entirely trust my travel planning to AI just yet.

AllTrails is another connector I took a look at, asking for a variety of weekend hiking options around my local area. I was easily able to look up walks based on time, user rating, and difficulty, and Claude helped me narrow down the different options I had and what each one involved. As with the other connectors here, I got some nicely formatted embedded previews within Claude itself.

Again, though, it's not all that different to just using the dedicated AllTrails app from the start. Claude's AI adds the sheen of conversational interface, which makes searching and comparing a little more straightforward, but it's really just joining dots that are already there.

The integrations are neatly done, but are only really previews. Credit: Lifehacker

Having Claude sweep through your Gmail for meeting times and present the results in Slack is one thing (and something you could already do with the enterprise-focused connectors), but giving you limited access to Spotify's tools for building playlists is another. At the moment, these lifestyle extensions feel a little half-baked.

I got that feeling with the Tripadvisor plug-in too, when I tried to look up the reviews of a local attraction inside Claude. The AI displayed a widget with details for the wrong location, told me that it had failed to find an accurate match from the Tripadvisor database, and advised me to check the Tripadvisor app directly, which I will be doing from now on.

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