The Browser Wars Go Mobile: Perplexity’s ‘Comet’ AI Browser Finally Hits Android

The battle to redefine how we surf the web has officially moved to your pocket. Perplexity, the AI search startup backed by Jeff Bezos and Nvidia, has launched the Android version of Comet, its "AI-native" web browser.

Previously available only to desktop users on macOS and Windows, Comet represents a fundamental shift in the browser paradigm. Instead of serving as a passive window to the web, Comet is designed to be an active partner—reading, summarizing, and even "acting" on webpages alongside the user. With this launch, Perplexity is taking a direct shot at Google’s dominance on its home turf, offering Android users a radical alternative to the standard Chrome experience.

The release comes amidst a flurry of activity in the "agentic AI" space, with competitors like OpenAI and Google racing to build assistants that don't just chat, but actually do things on the web.

A Browser That "Reads" With You

The core promise of Comet is that it removes the friction of modern browsing. On a traditional mobile browser, researching a topic involves opening dozens of tabs, scrolling through ads, and mentally synthesizing information. Comet attempts to offload that cognitive load to an AI.

The Always-On AI Assistant

The centerpiece of the Android app is the Comet Assistant. Accessible via a dedicated button in the interface, the assistant is "context-aware," meaning it sees exactly what the user sees.

If a user is reading a dense financial report, they can tap the assistant to ask, "What are the key revenue drivers mentioned here?" or "Compare these figures to last quarter." The AI scans the page content instantly and provides an answer without the user ever leaving the tab. This feature mirrors the desktop experience but has been optimized for the smaller real estate of smartphone screens.

Smart Summarization and Voice Mode

Perplexity has tailored Comet specifically for the on-the-go nature of mobile usage. Two standout features highlight this "mobile-first" philosophy:

Smart Summarization: Users can request concise summaries of long articles, recipes, or research papers. Uniquely, the company claims the AI can summarize content across multiple open tabs, allowing for high-level synthesis of a research session—a feature rarely seen in mobile browsers.
Voice Mode: Recognizing that typing complex queries on a virtual keyboard is cumbersome, Comet includes a robust Voice Mode. Users can speak naturally to the browser to ask questions, command it to find specific information, or navigate the web hands-free.

The "Agentic" Shift: Doing, Not Just Viewing

Comet’s arrival on Android signals the broader industry shift toward "Agentic AI"—systems capable of performing multi-step actions on behalf of the user.

While the current version of Comet for Android focuses primarily on information retrieval and summarization, Perplexity has outlined an aggressive roadmap. Future updates aim to introduce "conversational agents" that can navigate across multiple websites to complete tasks—such as finding the best flight across three different airline sites and adding it to a calendar—without human intervention.

For now, the app includes a built-in ad blocker to speed up page loads and reduce clutter, further differentiating it from the ad-heavy ecosystem of standard mobile browsers.

Limitations and Future Roadmap

Despite the excitement, the launch is not without its caveats. Early reviews and reports indicate that Comet for Android currently lacks cross-platform syncing. Users who have been using Comet on their desktop will find that their history, bookmarks, and sessions do not yet carry over to the mobile app.

Perplexity has acknowledged this gap, stating that syncing features are on the roadmap and expected to roll out in the coming weeks. Additionally, while the browser supports password autofill via Android’s native system, a dedicated Perplexity password manager is reportedly in development.

What about iPhone users?Perplexity has confirmed that an iOS version of Comet is imminent, with the company stating it will be released "within days." This will complete the ecosystem loop, allowing Perplexity to compete across all major computing platforms.

The Competitive Landscape: Can It Beat Chrome?

Perplexity faces a Goliath-sized challenge. Google Chrome holds a near-monopoly on Android devices, pre-installed on billions of phones globally. To win, Comet effectively has to be good enough to convince users to change their default browser settings—a historically difficult behavioral hurdle.

However, the timing is strategic. Google has been slowly rolling out its own Gemini AI features into Chrome, but critics argue these often feel like "add-ons" rather than a core part of the browsing experience. In contrast, Comet is built from the ground up with AI as the primary interface.

Comet also faces competition from Arc Search (by The Browser Company) and potential future mobile offerings from OpenAI, whose "ChatGPT Atlas" browser is currently testing on desktops.

Why This Matters

If Comet succeeds, it proves that users are ready to move beyond the traditional "search engine" model of the web—where blue links are the primary output—and toward an "answer engine" model where the browser does the reading for you.

For Android users tired of SEO-spam and cluttered websites, Comet offers a glimpse of a cleaner, smarter internet. Whether it can permanently displace Chrome remains to be seen, but for the first time in years, the mobile browser market feels genuinely competitive.