Could Comet meet the same fate as OpenAI's Atlas?

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how OpenAI’s Atlas browser looked like it had been quietly pushed aside. The biggest giveaway for me was that the release notes had simply stopped. There wasn’t much communication, development looked slow, and it all felt like the project had lost momentum.

Not long after that, OpenAI confirmed what many had started to suspect. Atlas was being shut down in favor of the browser built into the ChatGPT app.

Ever since then, I’ve had an uncomfortable feeling while using Perplexity’s Comet. The similarities are hard to ignore.

I’ve been using Comet off and on for a while now, and it doesn’t feel like the same product it did a few months ago. One issue that I’ve noticed recently has to do with Agent mode. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it refuses to do anything useful. Other times it just gets stuck halfway through a task.

At first, I assumed it was just me. Then I came across multiple Reddit threads from people describing almost the exact same experience. One user wrote, “Agentic browsing is not working,” while another asked whether anyone else was having issues because the feature had become unreliable. That made me feel a little less crazy.

It’s not just the bugs either.

Perplexity seems completely focused on Computer these days. Almost every major announcement revolves around the new product. That’s understandable. Companies shift priorities all the time. But if you’re someone who actually uses Comet every day, it’s hard not to notice how quiet things have become.

The desktop browser hasn’t had public release notes since February. The last entry on Perplexity’s “What’s New” page was about Voice Mode. Since then, nothing.

That reminds me a little too much of Atlas.

I even ran into a strange issue where my Mac installation of Comet sat on version 143.0.7499.40 for what felt like forever. Every time I checked for updates, it would just sit there saying it was checking, without ever finding anything.

In the end, I gave up, deleted the browser completely, downloaded the latest installer, and only then did it jump to 149.0.7827.197.

That’s certainly better, but it also raised another question. Browsers like Aside have already moved on to Chromium 150, something I touched on earlier this month.

Still, there’s at least one bright spot, and it is the mobile app. Especially on iOS, it still receives meaningful updates and feature additions. I recently covered new Reader Mode improvements, as well as the option to automatically close inactive tabs.

But it’s a completely different story on Comet for desktops.

Maybe I’m reading too much into all of this. I said the same thing when I wrote about Atlas, and for a brief moment I even wondered if I was being unfair.

Maybe Perplexity has a major desktop update waiting in the wings. Or maybe Comet is slowly becoming yesterday’s project while Computer takes center stage.

Right now, I honestly don’t know which one it is. I just know that after using Comet every day, the signs don’t feel particularly encouraging.

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