I Tried Out Perplexity Assistant, and Google Should be Absolutely Worried

Perplexity has released its first AI assistant for Android smartphones. Dubbed Perplexity Assistant, it takes on Google Assistant with support for actions, reminders, and some interesting new features. I replaced Gemini (and Google Assistant) on my Galaxy S23 with Perplexity Assistant to see what new experiences it brings to the table. And I have to say that it left me pleasantly surprised and made me realize how poor Gemini is. Find out why I say that below.

Perplexity Assistant Can Make Calls, Send Messages, and Email

I have used Gemini (previously Google Assistant) for so many years, and my most common task has been to make calls or send messages. So I started testing Perplexity Assistant by asking it to make a call after granting necessary permissions. Surprisingly, it did better than Google Assistant.

It doesn’t waste time reading aloud the response and then making a call. Instead, it directly places the call which makes the process near-instant and saves precious time. I absolutely love this latency-free experience. Not to mention, Perplexity picks the right contact automatically, which is great.

Next, I asked the Perplexity Assistant to find out movies nominated for Oscars 2025 and send the list to a contact of mine. It seamlessly integrated the default messaging app and was ready to send the information generated by Perplexity via SMS.

It shows that Perplexity Assistant can carry forward the conversation, remember the context, and perform multiple actions at once. Gemini on Android can also perform multiple actions with the Utilities extension, but I found it less reliable.

By the way, Perplexity Assistant doesn’t support WhatsApp yet. However, you can send details via email too, and it works just as well as text messages.

Overall, for basic calling and messaging, I found Perplexity Assistant better than Google/ Gemini Assistant. Of course, it doesn’t support nicknames for contacts yet, but I think Perplexity will only improve it further in future iterations.

Set Intelligent Reminders with Perplexity Assistant

While you can set reminders with Google Assistant, Perplexity Assistant brings something new and interesting. It can set intelligent reminders, which means you can give descriptive prompts, such as “remind me to watch the next season of Squid Games when it comes out”, and Perplexity Assistant handles the rest.

Due to deep AI integration and web search, Perplexity can find out the date and set a reminder for you. You don’t have to manually look for the dates and set a reminder accordingly. I think it’s a great use case for an AI-powered voice assistant. Note that reminders are handled by the Perplexity app, and it’s not added to your calendar.

Analyze the Screen with Perplexity Assistant

Google offers a phenomenal Circle to Search tool on Android, but Perplexity Assistant also does a great job analyzing the screen. You can fire up Perplexity Assistant and say “what am I looking at,” and it will analyze the active screen and generate a response immediately. This can be particularly helpful if you’re reading an article or a PDF and want to understand the nuances.

Furthermore, you can say ‘fact-check this article’ or ‘explain the diagram’ to me. There are countless use cases of this feature. Gemini on Android can also do this, but it takes a screenshot and then processes the visual information, which makes it a hassle. I would say screen analysis is one of the best features of Perplexity Assistant.

Ask the Perplexity Assistant Using Your Camera

Perplexity comes with camera support which makes it even more helpful. Simply launch Perplexity Assistant and tap on the camera icon to show it what you are looking at. For example, you can show a book and ask it about similar recommendations. If you are visiting another country, you can point the camera to popular monuments and get more information from the Perplexity Assistant.

Basically, you can process any visual information in real time. It’s somewhat similar to ChatGPT’s Live Video mode, which allows you to show the AI assistant what’s in front of you and interact with it in real time. However, Perplexity Assistant doesn’t support back-and-forth conversation so keep that in mind.

Notifications Summary Using Perplexity

Apple unveiled AI-powered Notification Summary with iOS 18, and now Perplexity Assistant has brought Notifications Summary to Android before Google. You can simply say, “catch me up on my notifications” and Perplexity will give a concise rundown of all the important notifications. It’s pretty cool and worked flawlessly well on my Android smartphone. Note that you will have to allow notification access to Perplexity in order to use this feature.

Book Uber and Restaurants with Perplexity Assistant

You can use Perplexity Assistant on Android to book Uber as well. Simply say, “get me an Uber to location,” and Perplexity will handle the booking for you. Of course, you need to grant your location permission beforehand. You can also use it to find directions and navigate anywhere you want. It uses Google Maps and directly opens the navigation screen without wasting any time.

Next, you can reserve restaurants with Perplexity Assistant. You can find local restaurants, get recommendations, and ask Perplexity to book a table at the restaurant.

Search and Play Songs and Videos

Just like Google Assistant, you can search and play songs and videos with Perplexity Assistant too. However, Perplexity takes it further by supporting descriptive prompts. For instance, you can say “play me the final song from Interstellar,” and it understands what you are looking for, and plays that specific track for you.

For my testing, I asked it to play the tense music from The Social Network movie, and it correctly picked Hand Covers Bruise. Wow!

You don’t have to specify the song or album name. Simply describe the song and Perplexity will do its best to find the song for you. By the way, it connects to Spotify to play songs and uses YouTube for videos.

In my testing, I found Perplexity Assistant to be impressive, particularly since it’s the first iteration. It already gets many things right in the first release itself. I like that Perplexity Assistant is designed to perform actions and speak less.

That said, currently, it doesn’t have support for many popular apps such as Google Keep, Calendar, and WhatsApp. I think over the next few releases, Perplexity Assistant can easily become a solid replacement for Google Assistant on Android phones.