Has the Perplexity AI voice assistant made Siri obsolete?

So right here’s my expertise utilizing Perplexity’s AI voice assistant.

How you can strive Perplexity’s new iOS voice assistant

In case you are utilizing Perplexity for the primary time, head to the Apple App Retailer and obtain the app. Simply be sure you’re working the most recent model. As soon as put in, open the app and sign up utilizing your e-mail tackle or along with your Apple or Google account. On the “Ask something” immediate, faucet the audio icon on the proper to talk your request.

The Perplexity app person interface on the iPhone. (Picture credit score: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Specific)

Earlier than you begin utilizing the app, you may customise it by tapping the settings icon on the prime. You may flip subtitles on or off, swap between two dialog modes, and select from six totally different voices. Do needless to say Perplexity presents each a free plan and paid plans with larger utilization limits. The app might use the knowledge you present for coaching functions, however you may decide out of this within the settings. Do try the total privateness coverage earlier than you utilize the app.

Siri feels caught previously

I bear in mind when Siri was unveiled over a decade in the past — Apple promised its voice assistant would do the sorts of issues individuals like me would wish to do on an iPhone. Easy issues like making hands-free messaging easy. The concept was that you’d have the ability to speak to know-how and get your work performed.

Actually, I felt it was a brand new type of interface — a really voice-heavy UI. However a decade later, Siri nonetheless feels caught previously and hasn’t tailored to trendy know-how. Not that Apple promised Siri would substitute Google, however the voice assistant hasn’t gained new options over time, and most of the people have realised that Siri remains to be restricted to a handful of easy duties, resembling setting timers and enjoying music.

Perplexity performs Siri-type capabilities very nicely

However after utilizing Perplexity on my iPhone, it feels just like the AI assistant I at all times thought Siri would turn out to be. In actual fact, there’s a enormous distinction between how Siri and Perplexity pay attention whenever you ask a query, with each responding very in a different way. Perplexity listens rigorously, and acts accordingly. There are pauses, and the tone will not be robotic — it’s extra like how a human listens to you.

To check the app, I requested Perplexity’s iOS assistant to draft an e-mail. In response, the assistant stated, ‘Positive, I might help you with that. May you please present the main points for the e-mail, such because the recipient, topic, and the message you wish to embody?’ When you grant permission, the assistant will ask for additional info. It really works simply as I anticipated.

Perplexity is a wiser Siri, for positive. (Picture credit score: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Specific)

Throughout my dialog with the assistant, there was a whole lot of background noise, and my voice wasn’t clear. Nonetheless, the assistant managed to determine it out and requested me to repeat myself as soon as there was much less background noise. What caught my consideration, although, was that Perplexity didn’t cease once I moved on to different duties. The assistant saved working even once I left the app. It’s attention-grabbing as a result of it doesn’t lose the knowledge or context and acts as a real assistant.

I then requested the assistant to play 90s dance songs on Apple Music, and it randomly picked a track from that period and performed it. Perplexity works with Apple Music. Apple Music is, if not probably the most used, positively among the many prime 5 apps I take advantage of most all through the day. I requested the assistant to play a track of my alternative on Apple Music, and it immediately discovered it and began enjoying. No surprise Perplexity additionally works nicely with Uber. The best way it integrates with third-party apps, at the least these I take advantage of probably the most, is a sport changer.

…However not a Google alternative

Though I really feel Perplexity’s iOS assistant works nice as a Siri alternative, it’s removed from changing Google for me. To check the place Perplexity stands as a search engine, I requested the assistant to search out the highest tech information of the day from the previous two days. The app did discover prime tech information utilizing trusted sources like Reuters, however throughout my first try, it listed 5-6 tech tales, considered one of which was ‘Apple’s quarterly outcomes have been robust.’ This puzzled me, and as somebody in tech journalism, it was simple for me to determine that Apple introduced its newest monetary outcomes on January 30. The subsequent monetary outcomes will probably be declared subsequent week, on Could 1, 2025.

You need to use Perplexity iOS assistant for duties like writing emails, enjoying music  and setting alerts. (Picture credit score: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Specific)

Perhaps Perplexity is getting higher at search engine duties, however I nonetheless don’t belief it as a information supply. I might relatively go to Google or get my information from a trusted supply like indianexpress.com.

I went again to the app and this time, I examined whether or not it may recognise the model of the indoor cooler I’ve on my balcony. I took an image of the cooler and requested Perplexity for the model title. As soon as once more, Perplexity gave me the flawed info, figuring out the model as Kenstar. The app’s visible intelligence is nowhere close to Google’s.

Early impressions

It’s been a number of days with Perplexity’s iOS assistant, and whereas I’m nonetheless getting used to it, one factor is evident: the AI firm, led by Aravind Srinivas, appears to have gotten issues proper — issues I at all times wished Siri excelled at, like making reservations, sending emails, and calendar invitations. Perplexity is promising to be an AI agent (and I hope it should turn out to be one sometime), drastically decreasing steps.

I nonetheless wish to take a look at Perplexity’s AI agent capabilities and see how far I can combine the app into my every day life. That being stated, for now, Perplexity has type of changed Siri. I might nonetheless say the app will not be excellent; there are flaws, however Perplexity handles nearly all of duties I care about and does them higher than Siri ever did.