diff --git a/pkg-r/DESCRIPTION b/pkg-r/DESCRIPTION
index f5471586..3d39b3e6 100644
--- a/pkg-r/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/pkg-r/DESCRIPTION
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ Imports:
     ellmer (>= 0.3.0),
     htmltools,
     lifecycle,
+    promises,
     purrr,
     rlang,
     shiny,
diff --git a/pkg-r/NEWS.md b/pkg-r/NEWS.md
index d44c08d2..ccf7dbda 100644
--- a/pkg-r/NEWS.md
+++ b/pkg-r/NEWS.md
@@ -17,3 +17,5 @@
   * the `querychat.client` R option, which can be any of the above options,
   * the `QUERYCHAT_CLIENT` environment variable, which should be a provider-model string,
   * or the default model from `ellmer::chat_openai()`.
+
+* `querychat_server()` now uses a `shiny::ExtendedTask` for streaming the chat response, which allows the dashboard to update and remain responsive while the chat response is streaming in. (#63)
diff --git a/pkg-r/R/querychat.R b/pkg-r/R/querychat.R
index cae09e7a..f90327a1 100644
--- a/pkg-r/R/querychat.R
+++ b/pkg-r/R/querychat.R
@@ -285,13 +285,22 @@ querychat_server <- function(id, querychat_config) {
       )
     }
 
-    # Handle user input
+    append_stream_task <- shiny::ExtendedTask$new(
+      function(client, user_input) {
+        stream <- client$stream_async(
+          user_input,
+          stream = "content"
+        )
+
+        p <- promises::promise_resolve(stream)
+        promises::then(p, function(stream) {
+          shinychat::chat_append("chat", stream)
+        })
+      }
+    )
+
     shiny::observeEvent(input$chat_user_input, {
-      # Add user message to the chat history
-      shinychat::chat_append(
-        "chat",
-        chat$stream_async(input$chat_user_input, stream = "content")
-      )
+      append_stream_task$invoke(chat, input$chat_user_input)
     })
 
     list(