Just a few days ago, Perplexity announced its arrival on Android as a voice assistantwhich allows me in practice to forget the old (and desperately unsatisfactory, after several years of use both on my mobile and in my smart home) Google Assistant and alternative to Gemini, the artificial intelligence assistant and official Google substitute.
I had tried Gemini and it seemed a big step forward compared to the lack of understanding and contextualization of Google Assistant, but today it is more ecological than the advanced voice mode of ChatGPT (for me, the best there is ). I didn't expect this hit on the table from this other industry player and I loved it so much that To this day I prefer Perplexity to Gemini on my Android.
How to change voice assistant to Perplexity
The first thing we will do will be to install Perplexity on our mobile, something we can do by simply downloading the application for free from the Google Play Store. To change the voice assistant we go to the mobile settings and in 'Applications' > 'Default apps' > 'Digital Assistant App' > 'Default digital assistant app' and there we played on 'Perplexity'.
The idea is that it replaces Google Assistant in the same functions and that we can invoke it in the same way, for example on my Pixel I usually do it by long pressing the power button, but there are other options. other means.
In addition to the above, we will have to accept the corresponding permissions to use it as an assistant since we will interact with it mainly by voice, which searches the Internet in real time, is multimodal and is capable of applying multitasking control over other applications (as we will see later , we can send an email, but also make calls or open Spotify with our commands).
This is the best that Perplexity offers as an assistant on Android
The arrival of artificial intelligence in voice assistants was an urgent necessity because the first generation assistants understood you just enough and this had a consequence: we ended up using them for four things, because with long commands and convoluted, it was a waste of time. time. Just for that, leaving Google Assistant behind Gemini or Perplexity was already a good idea.
So the next time I needed the wizard, I summoned it the old-fashioned way and the puzzle ball appeared with its animation. After you ask a question, Perplexity takes some time and returns your answer with both voice, images and text. Important: it is available in 15 languages, including Spanish (the one used in my experience).
The first thing I did was ask for basic things for which he used the assistant without much problem, but not always with the same result.
For example, asking him to convert a few dollars into yuan (practically what he used the most), setting off an alarm and solving a question as simple as 'What is the theme song from the Titanic soundtrack?', the last one seems easy, but it won't be the first time an assistant doesn't understand a long sentence or a specific word and responds like it's the broken telephone game. For now, This alone gives me more than Google Assistant.
So I'm taking it to the next level with some tasks that I normally found frustrating or downright impossible. In this sense, it should be noted that Perplexity works both as a classic assistant and at the same time as an AI chatbotfor example, you can ask him for an email to request a revision for an exam and he will prepare the text for you himself.
How to Search the Web in Real TimeI also consulted him on the arrival of “Herminia in Pamplona”, which requires knowing what Herminia is and being able to contextualize and focus the information on a specific place. Finally, a classic like asking for the best Mexicans in Madrid.
The above makes the difference because it not only understands natural language sentences, but is also able to interpret them well, carrying out precise searches on the Internet, composing texts and opening phone applications to work on them (it works with applications of messaging and entertainment such as YouTube or Spotify, Uber, clock and calendar, among others).
Furthermore, even though we work with voice, also supports text and camera inputallowing you to “see” what is on the screen so you can process it and act accordingly. For example, I tried visiting the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra page on Amazon and then asking it directly without mentioning the product in the foreground, in our example: 'When was the product I have on screen launched?'. Or ask him to tell me what song plays at the end of the Final Fantasy movie (from 2001) and play it.
But what impressed me the most was his ability to contextualize and make good use of your proprietary search engine offer current and precise answers, something impossible with a traditional voice assistant. So, I was able to subject him to the third degree about Miley Cyrus, her work and her miracles, as if I was talking to a human person.
I started with something simple like 'What is Miley Cyrus' latest album?» to ask him directly, without repeating his name, about some of his partners. And again ignoring his identity and assuming he remembered it, if he had dated women. Perplexity was able to understand what I was asking and in what context, search for the information and respond correctly.
Although the occasional command cost you time and stuck, I have been using it for a day for tasks of all kinds and the experience has been remarkably high. It's light years ahead of Google Assistant, but it also works better than Gemini. I'm not going back to the traditional assistant anymore.
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