Perplexity's new AI assistant for Android can perform multi-app tasks
24 Jan 2025

Perplexity, an AI-driven search engine, has launched a new feature called Perplexity Assistant.

The innovative AI tool is aimed at helping users with their daily tasks using reasoning, search, and app integration.

The assistant is available on Android devices via the Perplexity app. It can perform multi-app actions like booking a ride or finding a song, harnessing the power of Perplexity's search engine.

The capability is similar to Google Gemini, which can now perform multi-app tasks with a single prompt.

Perplexity Assistant's unique features and capabilities
Advanced functionality

Perplexity Assistant isn't just a basic tool, but a multimodal assistant that can use your phone's camera to answer questions about your surroundings or what's on your screen.

It retains context from one action to another, letting users perform tasks like researching local restaurants and making reservations automatically.

The assistant can also remind you of an event by finding the right date and time online, and creating a calendar entry for it.

Perplexity Assistant's initial launch and future improvements
Launch details

Initially, the Perplexity Assistant will be free for users speaking 15 languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Korean, and Hindi.

Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said while some actions may not work as expected, the company plans to fix these in the coming months.

This comes after previous instances where features such as the shopping function were slow and error-prone.

Perplexity's recent developments and future plans
Company growth

The introduction of Perplexity Assistant comes soon after the company launched Sonar, an API service for enterprises and developers to integrate Perplexity's generative AI search tools into their own applications.

They also recently acquired Read.cv, a social media platform for professionals.

Despite facing legal challenges from publishers like News Corp's Dow Jones and the NY Post over content replication concerns, Perplexity continues to grow rapidly with its AI-powered search engine handling over 100 million queries each week.