- Perplexity AI has launched a new AI assistant for Android devices called Perplexity Assistant.
- Users can replace Google Assistant or Gemini on their Android phones with Perplexity Assistant.
- Like Gemini, Perplexity can search online and perform tasks like sending messages, making calls, setting alarms, booking rides, and more.

But what sets it apart from Gemini, and is it worth switching? Let’s dive into the details.
Table of Contents
What is Perplexity Assistant?
Perplexity Assistant is a voice-based AI chatbot, much like Gemini or Siri. However, it is only available on Android for now.
You can ask Perplexity Assistant any question, and it will answer using its AI search engine. However, the company says its main focus is getting things done by performing actions on your phone, like making calls, controlling apps and settings, and more. It also leverages AI to provide intelligent reminders, analyze your screen, and even interact with what’s around you using your phone’s camera. I’ll go through the things you can do with Perplexity below.
It’s available in 15 languages, including English, Spanish, French, and Hindi, and Perplexity has made it free to use for now. While Perplexity Assistant is still a work in progress with some bugs, early adopters seem to be impressed with what it can do.
How to Replace Gemini with Perplexity Assistant on Android
If you’re ready to give Perplexity Assistant a try, here’s how you can replace Gemini or any other assistant on your Android device:
- Head over to the Google Play Store and install the Perplexity app.
- Once installed, open the app and follow the setup process. You’ll need to grant permissions for calls, messages, notifications, etc., and log in to the service.
- Click on your profile picture and open Settings.
- Scroll down and select the Enable Assistant option.
- This will open your phone’s digital assistant settings. Select the Perplexity app as your default assistant.




That’s it. Now Perplexity is your default assistant—just long-press the power button, swipe up from the bottom corners, or press and hold the home button to activate it. However, currently, you cannot activate it with a wake word like Gemini.
What Can You Do with Perplexity Assistant?
1. Make Calls and Send Messages
To make a call or send a message, you can simply say, “Call [contact name]” or “Send a message to [contact].” In our experience, Perplexity struggled to access contacts, often resulting in, “I could not find [contact] in your contacts.” Even when it placed a call, it often called a random number or a different contact without confirmation, requiring me to intervene and cut the call immediately.
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2. Set Intelligent Reminders
One standout feature is its smart reminders. For instance, you can say, “Remind me to watch the next season of Squid Game when it comes out,” or “Set a reminder to book tickets for the FIFA World Cup when they’re available.” Perplexity searches online for dates and sets reminders accordingly.
However, if the event date changes later or hasn’t been officially announced, it can falter. For example, if you set a reminder for the next season of The Boys before an official announcement, Perplexity won’t know the exact date and might return an error or, worse, set a reminder based on a speculated date it gathered from a random blog post.


3. Analyze Your Screen
You can ask Perplexity to “Fact-check this article” or ask “What am I looking at?” and it will check your screen and respond. Unlike Gemini, which takes a screenshot of your screen and responds, Perplexity directly accesses your screen, making the process seamless.
I was genuinely impressed by Perplexity’s performance. It analyzed on-screen content with near-perfect accuracy almost every time. The generated summaries of PDFs and online articles were precise and well-crafted. When I tested it with a chat, it grasped the context effortlessly and provided an accurate explanation. While it can occasionally be a bit slow, it delivers reliable results about 90% of the time.


4. Use Your Camera for Real-Time Assistance
Just point your phone’s camera at a book, monument, or even a math problem, and Perplexity Assistant will deliver an answer. Like its screen analysis, the AI handled camera inputs impressively. However, it struggled with complex math problems, often giving incorrect answers. Despite this, it excelled at most tasks, particularly those involving online searches.

5. Get a Notification Summary
Have a lot of unchecked notifications? You can ask Perplexity to “Catch me up on my notifications,” and it will summarize them for you. It did a decent job summarizing, similar to its screen analysis capabilities.
However, it wasn’t perfect. It missed some notifications, so relying on it doesn’t guarantee you’ve reviewed everything. Oddly, it included promotional notifications, like Domino’s offers, but skipped important ones from Slack. On top of that, Perplexity assistant was slow—scrolling through your notifications manually would likely be faster. When I asked, “Have I got any messages from [contact]?” it confidently said no, but it turned out to be wrong.

Also Read:
- Perplexity Sports Adds Real-Time Updates for NBA and NFL Games
- Perplexity Adds New Shopping Features: Buy with Pro and Snap to Shop
- Google Gemini’s Deep Research: What is it and How to Use it?
- ChatGPT Search: How It’s Different from Regular ChatGPT
6. Book Rides and Make Reservations
Need a ride or a dinner reservation? Perplexity Assistant has you covered. Just say, “Get me an Uber to [location],” and it will book the ride for you. You can also ask it to find local restaurants and reserve a table. The experience was smooth and intuitive. It opened the app and searched for the destination. I just had to select the type of ride and tap the Choose button to book.


7. Play Songs and Videos
Finally, you can also ask Perplexity to play some songs. Simply describe what you want, like, “Play Weightless,” and it will fetch and play the track from Spotify or YouTube. Also, Perplexity can understand the song even by descriptive prompts. For example, you can say “Play me the iconic guitar solo from Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen” and it identifies the song you are asking for.


Is Perplexity Assistant Worth a Try?
Perplexity has its advantages. It shines in areas like booking rides, searching online, analyzing screens, helping through the camera, and playing songs. However, it’s a bit slow, and tasks like making calls feel like a downgrade. It stands up to Gemini but doesn’t come close to Gemini Live or ChatGPT 4.0.
That said, it’s still worth trying if you’re curious about a new assistant.