Perplexity launches the iPhone voice assistant

A recent update to Perplexity’s iOS app made the company’s conversational AI voice assistant compatible. With the help of the app, Apple customers may now ask the assistant to do things like compose emails, make reminders, and book a supper.

Even though it doesn’t yet enable screen sharing like Android does, you may still talk to Perplexity after leaving the app. Some of the conversational AI features Apple has promised for Siri, which Apple Intelligence powers, may still be more than a year away. Additionally, Perplexity’s assistant can perform these tasks on older devices, such as the iPhone 13 mini, in contrast to Apple Intelligence.

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The upgrade, revealed by CEO Aravind Srinivas in several X postings, moves Perplexity one step closer to its goal of being a full-service, on-device agent. This assistant is actionable rather than merely conversational, in contrast to Siri or ChatGPT Voice.

Now, users may ask for specific footage, such as “the video of Katy Perry kissing the ground after landing from the rocket,” or say something like, “Play me that podcast where Marc Andreessen talks about browsers with Lex Fridman.”

According to Srinivas, Gmail and Google Calendar compatibility is coming, but Apple Music is now the default for playing music, and Apple Mail is utilized for email. 

With a three- to four-second lag, the assistant is activated by voice. For quicker access, users can also map the Action button on their iPhone to activate Perplexity’s Voice Mode, thereby turning the button into an AI gateway.

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There are restrictions: because of Apple’s SDK limits, it is unable to modify iOS system settings like brightness, volume, or flashlight. Although there is an in-app workaround, native alerts are likewise prohibited.

In homage to Steve Jobs, Srinivasan even proposed the humorous idea of using the phrase “Hey Steve” as a trigger.

Perplexity Assistant, which is launching a new class of agentic mobile AI, may be the closest thing to a complete Siri replacement, even though it isn’t yet. ChatGPT hasn’t been able to accomplish this on the iPhone.