Perplexity‘s iOS app has just received an update that enables support for the company’s AI-powered conversational voice assistant. Apple users can now activate the assistant in the app and ask it to perform tasks such as writing emails, setting reminders, and making dinner reservations.
You can even exit the app and continue talking to Perplexity, although it doesn’t yet support screen sharing like it does on Android. Meanwhile, some of the conversational AI features that Apple promised for Siri based on Apple Intelligence may not be coming soon. And unlike Apple Intelligence, Perplexity’s assistant can do these things on older devices like my iPhone 13 mini.
When the Android version was launched in January, a Perplexity spokesperson told The Verge that it would be coming to iPhone and iPad as soon as “Apple grants us the appropriate permissions,” and apparently it has.
Today I downloaded Perplexity to my iPhone for the first time and asked it to set a reminder to start cooking at 7:00 pm. I was greeted with a pop-up asking for permission to view my reminders. I agreed and the program added the reminders as I expected. I tried to create a text message and, as expected, Perplexity asked for access to my contacts. I declined, but I appreciated that the next step was for the assistant to suggest that I simply say the desired phone number instead of giving up completely.
I also tried booking a table at a restaurant, as shown in a video demo posted by Peplexity, and its mobile assistant opened Open Table and then entered the dates and times I spoke out loud. However, these actions are not end-to-end; you will still need to complete the process yourself in the window. Perplexity can also open my Uber app and arrange a ride for me.
The Perplexity voice assistant has other limitations on iOS. You can’t ask it to look at your camera and “see” what you’re seeing for context, like other AI assistants like ChatGPT and Grok do. But you can still use a standard text chatbot to ask questions about a photo. But you can’t ask it to set an alarm on your iPhone on a schedule – you’ll still need Siri for that.
