Perplexity becomes a real personal assistant on WhatsApp with this new very practical function

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The war of artificial intelligence is now played on an unexpected field to say the least: our messaging applications. Far from web interfaces or dedicated applications, the Californian start-up Perplexity has decided since April 29 to seek its users where they are already by billions, that is to say on WhatsApp. She thus followed the step to Chatgpt, available on the Meta platform since the end of 2024. Not to mention Meta obviously, the chatbot has been present for a few months of will or force in all the services of Meta.

Perplexity and Chatgpt are therefore at the elbow to try to cut a part of the cake. Also, to stand out, the first city has just announced the integration of a task planning function directly within its conversational agent on WhatsApp. It was Aravind Srinivas, the CEO and co-founder of Perplexity, who himself revealed this new string to the arc of his product. He describes this novelty as the possibility of enjoying ” For the first time of a basic assistant on WhatsApp who sends periodic information alerts and personalized reminders at the frequency you define, all in simple natural language ». The ambition is therefore to transform the most popular messaging into a real personal assistant, without ever having to leave it.

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An agenda directly in your conversations

But then, how does it work? The use is intended to be childish simplicity since it is enough to add the telephone number of Perplexity (+1 833 436 3285) to its contacts to launch the discussion. No need to create an account, connect or install the slightest additional application. This is the heart of the proposal. Once the contact has been established, you can make your requests as you would with a human.

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The possibilities are already quite varied. It is thus possible to program a punctual reminder, as “remind me of extinguishing the oven in an hour”, or recurring tasks, for example ” Send me a summary of the tech news every morning at 8 a.m. ” Or ” Remind me of drinking water every hour ». The company has also shared a fairly evocative use case: a user asks for the latest news on a geopolitical conflict, then continues with a simple ” Can you send me an update on this subject every morning? ». The bot then confirms having programmed the daily sending of information on this theme. Modify or cancel these programming remains just as simple, always through textual commands. The service also offers a table of current tasks, from which you can manage them. This strategy could prove to be paid to bring out the AI ​​assistants of the technophile circle alone and make the management of its reminders a act as banal as to send a message.

However, as you can see in the screenshots that illustrate this article, the operation of this novelty seems a bit erratic for the moment. Some reminders requested are well issued in time, when it is more complicated for others. However, it is likely that these small hiccups will resolve over time and updates.

What about confidentiality in all of this?

Obviously, entrusting your beasts and interests to an AI via WhatsApp has something to raise some questions about confidentiality. Especially since Perplexity did not illustrate in the best way on this subject when she communicated about the personal vacuum cleaner that will be its future Comet web browser. But what about Meta Ai, the Gotatsapp Chatbot of Whatsapp, which turns out to be a nightmare for confidentiality? In the case that interests us here, Perplexity is at least a little reassuring. Since the exchanges pass through WhatsApp, they theoretically benefit from end -to -end encryption of the platform. The start-up also specifies that it does not keep personal messages beyond what is necessary for the execution of the requested task.

The company has also already confirmed that other features are in preparation, such as a vocal mode or the integration of more playful content such as memes or videos. Verification of facts (Fact-Checking) is also one of the tracks under study. We note in passing that Perplexity is also available in Telegram conversations.

A gigantic hunting ground

As said above, Perplexity is not alone in the niche and Chatgpt is even the first to have invested WhatsApp. If the two giants have invested Meta’s messaging, it is because this conversational approach which relies on exchanges in natural language makes their service particularly accessible, allowing to reach a much wider audience. Those who are put off or feel overwhelmed by web interfaces and AI applications can interact with them from a tool anchored in their daily lives, through an interface they have known and have mastered for years. And when you know that WhatsApp has 3 billion users, you quickly understand that it is an irresistible hunting ground.

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