Anthropic's Claude becomes most popular free app on iPhone and Android amid fallout from Trump fight

Source: Yahoo! Finance

Tue, March 3, 2026 at 5:41 PM EST


Anthropic's Claude became the most downloaded free app on both Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store on Tuesday, the company announced, following its showdown with the Department of Defense (DOD) last week.

Anthropic (ANTH.PVT) and the DOD have been sparring over the company's insistence that the agency not use its Claude models for the mass surveillance of Americans or to develop fully autonomous weapons. On Friday, President Trump ordered all of the federal government to phase out Anthropic's technology over the next six months.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth then said he is labeling the company a supply chain threat. That could force firms that work with the government and use Anthropic's models to stop using the company's technology, though Anthropic says that only applies to those firms' government work and not to their private businesses.

But the blowup has seemingly helped Anthropic's public relations, with the company saying that Monday was its largest single day for sign-ups ever. It then leaned into the goodwill, adding memory to the free version of Claude, allowing users to save and build on prior interactions with the AI bot.

Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/anthropics-claude-becomes-most-popular-free-app-on-iphone-and-android-amid-fallout-from-trump-fight-224115419.html