- AI browser Comet from Perplexity rolls out for free.
- iOS version still in the works, despite rogue App Store appearance.
- Company CEO declares bogus app “fake and spam”.
The new AI-powered browser from Perplexity, Comet, is currently winning headlines and gaining popularity – but in the mobile space, only on Android devices.
Aravind Srinivas, the CEO of AI startup Perplexity has issued a public warning via social media that the iOS version of the app, which was available on the App Store for iOS users, is a hoax application and should not be downloaded.
As of the time of writing, the listing for the bogus app has been removed, although links from search engines still exist.
Srinivas called the app “fake and spam”, stating the app is not affiliated with Perplexity, and that the company has yet to release the browser for iOS. “You will directly hear from us when Comet iOS is ready for pre-registering and downloading.”
The Comet AI browser has received a positive reception on the Google Play Store in the geographies where it’s available. The company has also released the desktop Comet browser for free in some areas – previously it was only an option to paying subscribers of Perplexity’s AI services. Comet now offers AI-powered features to users at zero cost (depending on their location, release cadences may vary), including recommendations, shopping, and smart search. Features include AI-powered summaries of searches, a contextual recommendation engine, and various integrated tools for content discovery.
The company has been careful to position Comet as a direct Chrome rival; a tall order given the latter’s ubiquitous position in the browser league tables. Chrome currently dominates web browser choice, with approximately 65% of the market across mobile and desktop. Main rival, Apple’s Safari, holds around 15% of the total.
Comet is based on open-source Chromium, meaning current Chrome users have access to the extensions and themes they currently use and could migrate to the ‘AI-powered experience’ with little disruption. With the exception of a few outliers plus Firefox and Safari, Comet joins the ranks of browsers operating on the Blink web engine, such as Microsoft Edge. Blink was forked from Apple’s WebKit in 2013.
Some AI processing by Comet is carried out on a user’s device, according to the app’s settings under ‘Local Processing Mode’, and the browser stores personalised data locally. However, Perplexity takes data to “improve Comet and recommend relevant data” and shares it with “vendors or other service providers who help us provide and personalize Comet, including for system administration, search engines, cloud storage, generative AI and content creation, security, analytics and payment processing.”
The integration of AI directly into the browser means a slightly streamlined user experience, where in other browsers, AI elements may appear in sidebars or pop-up windows, turned off in the case of Firefox, or not be an option at all – the developers of the Vivaldi browser having decided not to implement AI on their platform.
(Image source: Wiki Commons)
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