After launching its Comet browser for Home windows and Mac, Perplexity is taking its competitors with Google Chrome to the subsequent degree by introducing its AI-powered browser on Android. Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas confirmed to Reuters that the AI startup is in talks with smartphone makers to pre-install its Comet browser on units.
At the moment, most smartphones ship with Google Chrome pre-installed, alongside an extra browser relying on the OEM, resembling Samsung Web on Samsung units and the ‘Web’ app on OnePlus units.
Having Comet as a pre-installed browser couldn’t solely give the app recognition but additionally improve its stickiness amongst customers. Whereas AI is Comet’s greatest promoting level, the browser itself is constructed on Chromium structure, making it a simple swap for current Chrome customers.
“It’s not simple to persuade cellular OEMs to alter the default browser to Comet from Chrome,” Srinivas informed Reuters about getting Comet pre-installed on smartphones.
Earlier this yr, Perplexity’s Chief Enterprise Officer Dmitry Shevelenko testified within the Google antitrust case, stating that the tech large had blocked its efforts to make Perplexity the default assistant on Motorola units regardless of an settlement between each firms. He described Google’s contracts with smartphone makers as a “gun to your head.”
Perplexity ultimately managed to get its app pre-installed on Motorola units, whereas Google Assistant remained the default assistant app. A Bloomberg report earlier this yr acknowledged that Perplexity is working with Samsung and Apple to probably combine its AI search capabilities into their assistants. Apple at the moment makes use of in-house infrastructure for Siri whereas routing complicated queries to ChatGPT, whereas Samsung has relied closely on Google’s Gemini for its AI options.
When requested a couple of launch date for the Comet browser on Android throughout a current AMA, Srinivas declined to present a timeline, saying, “Group is sprinting.” For iOS, he acknowledged the app could possibly be prepared within the subsequent 2–3 months.
At the moment, Comet is in beta and accessible solely to Perplexity’s paying prospects on Home windows and Mac, whereas free customers can entry the agentic browser by means of an invitation listing.
Srinivas informed Reuters he goals to deliver Comet to “tens of lots of of tens of millions” of customers subsequent yr after stabilising the desktop model for the preliminary few hundred thousand testers.
