Perplexity Comet launches on Android devices

Perplexity’s AI-first browser Comet hits Android, bringing the browser war to mobile devices. The free app is available on devices running Android 12 or later, with an iOS version also planned, and it presents Perplexity’s conversational search as a primary means of accessing the web on mobile.

What Comet brings to mobile browsing and search

Comet is built around an assistant that summarizes pages, answers complex questions, and demonstrates its reasoning while you browse. Perplexity rebuilt the experience for smaller screens, adapting its desktop UI rather than shrinking it. A floating voice prompt allows you to “ask over” what you’re reading, and the assistant is able to ingest context across tabs in order to improve follow-up recommendations and summaries.

It includes an ad blocker with an opt-in whitelist, so users can support trusted publishers — a nod to the competing demands of distraction-free reading and the economics of the open web. Perplexity’s engine is the default search built into Comet, keeping users in a continuous loop of query, scan, verify, and pivot.

Why this move matters for AI-first mobile browsing

It’s a strategic asset to own the browser on mobile. Chrome makes up around 64% of global mobile browsing, according to StatCounter, with Safari at nearly 25%, and single digits for everyone else. Because the vast majority of web discovery now begins in a browser, the switch from standalone AI answer engine to full mobile browser is an effort on Perplexity’s part to capture not just searches but also everything around them.

There are regulatory tailwinds, too. Platforms have been coerced by the European Union’s Digital Markets Act into offering choice screens and easing defaults — a low-key, momentous obstacle for new browsers. The nudge effects of defaults have been shown to be small in magnitude, according to studies that competition authorities across Europe and the UK point to, but even if modest it could allow AI-first browsers a proper foothold.

How it stacks up against AI rivals in mobile browsing

Big incumbents are layering AI into old-fashioned browsers: Microsoft’s Edge incorporates Copilot, Chrome is baking in generative features, Brave has its Leo assistant, and Firefox has started testing AI search partners while vowing to stay a privacy-first party. On mobile, AI-heavy browsers like Arc on iOS and Opera’s Aria assistant suggest there’s appetite to reimagine search and browsing.

Comet’s distinguishing feature will be designing around an assistant that actively reads what you have open, and then synthesizes and cites sources in real time. It intends to be a research co-pilot, not a chatbot glued to the side of a tab. Perplexity has accentuated citations and transparent reasoning, a focus that may prove decisive as AI responses are more and more replacing card catalog–style links.

Business model and user experience for Comet browser

Comet debuted on desktop with restricted access for top-tier subscribers, before opening more widely in October; the Android app is free at launch. That’s consistent with the playbook of incumbents: wrap search in a browser to increase retention and lower acquisition costs. Perplexity said it wants to implement a chatbot in-browser, quick actions for common actions, and a password manager – features that would make Comet a regular-use browser.

Practical considerations remain. An always-context-aware assistant can really be revolutionary in research, but it depends on cloud inference (latency, data usage, and battery life). Comet is optimized for the small screen, Perplexity says, although power users will soon be probing its multi-tab understanding and voice overlays to see whether they feel additive or obtrusive on a phone.

The stakes are high for AI on mobile browsing

If Comet takes the habitual use award, it puts incumbents on their home turf: intent to information the easiest way. For publishers, an AI-first browser with built-in ad blocking and summary views also raises familiar questions about traffic, monetization, and attribution, albeit under more accommodating conditions like whitelisting or visible citations.

What’s in it for users is speed and clarity: fewer taps, fewer tabs to lose, answers that scour a messy web into something workable. If the assistant’s logic and data are transparent — as long as it remains accurate — Comet should be able to offer itself up as a legitimate alternative to querying an omnibox with your thoughts, and then sifting through results. Some people even hoped it might spark new competition among browsers, likening the free-for-all to a 21st-century version of the “browser wars.” The war is back — and this time, on mobile.

Availability on Android now, with iOS timing to follow

Comet is available now in the Google Play Store for devices with Android 12 and up. An iPhone/iPad version is in the works, timing to be determined.