Perplexity mobile app vs desktop interface: features, integrations, and usability
- Graziano Stefanelli
- Sep 17
- 4 min read
Perplexity AI has grown into one of the most popular AI search and research assistants in 2025, offering a fast, citation-rich experience across mobile apps and desktop platforms. But the user experience varies significantly between devices. The mobile app delivers voice-first interactions and deep system integration, while the desktop interface—including the experimental Comet browser—offers extended workspace, real-time sidebar AI, and access to cutting-edge models. This article provides a full breakdown of the feature sets, usability differences, upload options, and pricing across both environments.
Voice features and system integration are where the mobile app shines.
One of the most distinctive advantages of Perplexity’s mobile app is its native voice assistant, introduced on iOS in April 2025 and on Android in January 2025. This feature enables users to perform AI searches via voice with fast response times and persistent operation in the background.
On Android, Perplexity can even be set as the default device assistant, replacing Google Assistant or Samsung Bixby. This means users can trigger it via swipe gestures or hardware buttons. The app supports:
Continuous voice listening in Ask mode
Long-form replies in voice
Hands-free multitasking with persistent background chat
On iOS, system limitations prevent replacing Siri, but Perplexity integrates through the share sheet, letting users run queries from Safari, Mail, or Notes via the “Ask Perplexity” extension.
Desktop platforms, by contrast, currently lack voice functionality. The main Perplexity web app offers chat and research in text format, while the Comet browser—available to Max subscribers—includes an AI assistant sidebar that responds within the webpage. However, voice is absent from both.
File uploads and Deep Research features are available across all platforms.
Both mobile and desktop versions of Perplexity support file uploads and Deep Research mode, with near-identical limits and capabilities.
The mobile version auto-detects when pasted content exceeds internal token limits and suggests uploading as a file instead. Deep Research results appear in a compact scroll format, while the desktop UI presents outlines, citations, and summaries in side-by-side panes, making longer documents easier to explore.
Model selection varies slightly between platforms, with desktop offering more experimental options.
While both platforms provide access to Perplexity’s high-performance models for Pro users, desktop includes additional experimental options under the Labs section.
The Labs area in the web version rotates in new models and configurations, including ultra-long context agents (Llama 3 400K) and API-style tool integrations. These are unavailable on mobile.
On mobile, the app allows model switching via a drop-down and may default to smaller models (e.g., Sonar Mini) when battery-saving settings are enabled.
The desktop UI is better for multi-document work and citation tracking.
Perplexity’s web interface offers a more rich and expansive layout, especially for long or complex searches. Some of its key advantages include:
Side-by-side citation view, with numbered references linked to sources
Resizable panes for output, follow-ups, and suggested questions
Keyboard shortcuts (Cmd/Ctrl + /) for power users
Wider table rendering for CSV, XLSX, and Markdown visualizations
This makes the desktop interface particularly useful for academic research, technical analysis, or team-based documentation, where visibility and formatting are critical. The Comet browser enhances this by embedding an AI panel within websites, responding in real time as users browse.
Mobile remains more concise, often limiting visible interface elements to just three primary modes: Ask, Pro Search, and Voice. While this makes it faster and easier to use on the go, it lacks the same workspace depth.
Usability and performance tradeoffs: voice vs layout, portability vs precision.
Privacy and storage policies differ slightly between app and web.
Perplexity stores history and user inputs differently across devices:
Mobile app uses encrypted local storage with optional biometric locks (Face ID / fingerprint).
Web interface relies on session cookies and persistent login for history recall.
Comet browser emphasizes local-only storage, with history never uploaded to the cloud—based on statements from company leadership. However, a full white-paper privacy policy for Comet is not yet published.
This means mobile users can rely on native OS sandboxing for privacy, while desktop users benefit from transparency in local-only modes (though full technical documentation remains in progress).
Perplexity offers full feature parity across platforms with targeted UX strengths.
Despite some functionality differences—especially in voice input and layout rendering—mobile and desktop versions of Perplexity share the same core intelligence, models, and research tools. Voice-first users and on-the-go learners will benefit most from the app’s assistant mode and integrations with native OS features like Android Intents or iOS Share Sheets. Power users, researchers, and professionals will find that the desktop interface and Comet browser offer greater visibility, model flexibility, and formatting precision.
Both interfaces continue to evolve in parallel, with new updates rolling out weekly and pricing tiers structured to serve individuals, prosumers, and enterprise teams alike. As of 2025, the mobile app and desktop platform form a unified but adaptive ecosystem—designed to fit any productivity style.
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