Perplexity is widening the reach of its AI-powered browser, bringing Comet to Android users worldwide. The company has released the mobile version on the Google Play Store, making it free to download and putting it on equal footing with the desktop and iOS editions after months of gradual rollout.
Comet first surfaced this summer as a perk reserved exclusively for Perplexity’s $200-per-month Pro subscribers — a steep entry point that signaled the company’s ambitions to build a premium, AI-native browsing experience. That exclusivity didn’t last long. Perplexity opened the browser to all users last month, and today’s Android launch completes the company’s plan to make Comet broadly accessible across platforms.
The Android version mirrors the feature set available elsewhere. Users get full access to Perplexity’s AI assistant, real-time summarization for search results, and hands-free interaction via voice queries. Comet is designed to behave more like an active research companion than a traditional browser: instead of returning a list of links, it synthesizes information, answers follow-up questions, and maintains context across sessions. Perplexity pitches this as a way to streamline information gathering, especially on mobile devices where multitasking is limited.
But Perplexity has also been explicit about the business model behind Comet. The browser is a data-acquisition strategy. By convincing users to browse inside a Perplexity-controlled environment, the company can collect richer behavioral signals — what people search for, what they click, where they spend time — and use that data to target ads more efficiently. The tactic mirrors what established tech giants have been doing for years, but the framing is more transparent than most companies are willing to admit.
That transparency hasn’t softened concerns. Amazon has already raised objections, particularly around how AI-generated summaries and shopping suggestions interact with product marketplaces. Retailers fear that AI-driven browsing layers could distort search rankings, interfere with brand placement, or steer customers toward third-party sellers they didn’t intend to see. For Amazon — a company that depends heavily on controlling the customer journey — an AI browser sitting between the shopper and the marketplace represents a real competitive risk.
