Move over, Siri. There's a new AI in town threatening to take over your territory. Its name is Perplexity.

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The latest version of Perplexity's iPhone app introduces a new voice assistant designed to perform a variety of tasks. Many of these tasks are typically reserved for Siri, as they are not only interactive but can also access key information on your phone.

What you can ask Perplexity

Just like Siri, you can ask Perplexity's voice assistant to set a reminder, schedule a calendar event, play a song from Apple Music, open a podcast, and get directions via Apple Maps. Simply tell it to perform any of these tasks, and Perplexity will interact with the appropriate app or feature and display the results.

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For example, ask Perplexity's voice assistant about your appointments for next week. The AI will scan your calendar and both speak and display your upcoming appointments. Ask it to set a reminder to take your cat to the vet tomorrow at 11 a.m., and it will add that task to Apple's Reminders app. Ask it for directions to Faneuil Hall in Boston, Massachusetts, and the AI will display a map of the route along with a link to open it in Apple Maps with turn-by-turn directions.

The voice assistant can handle other tasks, such as composing an email, sending calendar invitations, and booking a ride with Uber. The first time you ask it to perform a system-level task, the AI will request permission to access the specific data, such as your calendar, reminders, or contacts. After that, the process is typically quick and seamless.

Frustrated with Siri

Perplexity's new skill is an attempt by an AI to take on some of Siri's capabilities. Typically, most AIs do not have this level of access to your iPhone, which is why you cannot ask ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or Microsoft Copilot to play music from your library, add a reminder, or access your iPhone's calendar.

This new capability also comes at a time when Apple users have grown frustrated with Siri. Far too often, Apple's voice assistant fails to understand simple requests, misinterprets what you say, or simply gives up instead of helping. Apple has been promising to enhance and improve Siri, but those efforts have been delayed repeatedly.

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Even with Perplexity's new power, there are still many tasks only Siri can accomplish. For example, when I asked Perplexity to send a text message to someone in my contacts, it responded that it cannot send texts directly. Nonetheless, Perplexity's voice assistant is an impressive first attempt at tighter integration with your data.

How to try the new voice assistant

To try the new voice assistant, download and install the Perplexity iOS app if you do not already have it. Otherwise, make sure you are running the latest version. Open the app and sign in with your email address or your Apple or Google account. At the "Ask anything" prompt, tap the audio icon on the right. You can then speak your request.

Also: What is Perplexity Deep Research, and how do you use it?

To tweak the app, tap the settings icon at the top. Here, you can turn subtitles on or off and switch between two different modes for talking to the AI. You can also choose from six different voices.

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