Observed Signal · Feb 25, 2026 · Technical Release · Source: OnlineMarketing.de · Impact: 1/5 · Sentiment: Neutral
Perplexity's Comet adds voice-controlled mode
Perplexity’s AI-first browser Comet now includes a Voice Mode that enables complete hands-free navigation, chat, and information retrieval using voice commands. The update is rolled out to all users and is powered by OpenAI’s gpt-realtime-1.5 model, which Perplexity says improves call stability by over 25% and enhances expressive speech understanding. OpenAI reported performance gains for the model, including a +5% intelligence lift on Big Bench Audio, +10.23% transcription accuracy, and +7% instruction-following in internal evaluations. Perplexity notes that its AI Answering Machine remains ad-free, aligning with Claude and differing from ChatGPT in that respect. An iOS version of Comet with the Voice Mode upgrade is expected to arrive soon. The piece places this development in the broader context of AI browser innovations from Google and Microsoft, and other AI-powered browser features.
Niche feature update; not platform-level or major release
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Perplexity rolled out a new Voice Mode for Comet, enabling hands-free control.
- Voice Mode is powered by OpenAI's gpt-realtime-1.5 model.
- OpenAI data show +5% intelligence lift on Big Bench Audio, +10.23% transcription, +7% instruction following for gpt-realtime-1.5.
- Perplexity's AI Answering Machine remains ad-free.
- Comet iOS will receive the Voice Mode upgrade in a few days.
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