Perplexity AI WhatsApp bot returns online: Here is why it was taken down

Perplexity AI bot on Whatsapp is back online after it was taken offline by the US-based maker following a sudden and significant increase in user activity

Perplexity Chief Executive Aravind Srinivas announced on X that the WhatsApp bot had resumed operations after a temporary shutdown due to a significant rise in user activity. Earlier, Srinivas had stated that the volume of incoming queries "is far beyond anything we anticipated," which led the team to pause the service to scale its infrastructure. Approximately three hours after his initial post, he confirmed the resumption of services.

 

Srinivas wrote: “Perplexity is back up and running on WhatsApp again: +1 (833) 436-3285 Have fun forwarding messages to it for fact checks, or directly chatting for answers and free form text conversations and creating images.”

 

 

Perplexity is back up and running on WhatsApp again: : +1 (833) 436-3285  Have fun forwarding messages to it for fact checks, or directly chatting for answers and free form text conversations and creating images.

— Aravind Srinivas (@AravSrinivas) May 2, 2025

Why was the Perplexity AI bot on WhatsApp taken down?

 

An unexpected surge in user activity, exceeding the company's projections, was the main reason for the outage. It is unclear whether the fact-checking feature directly caused the spike in usage or if other factors played a role. 

  

In his earlier update, Srinivas said, “We’ve had to take it down temporarily. Working to bring it back as soon as possible,” and thanked users for their patience while promising further updates.

 

The WhatsApp bot was introduced as a tool to combat misinformation, enabling users to forward suspicious or viral messages from their chats for instant fact-checking.

 

What can the Perplexity AI bot on WhatsApp do?

 

Perplexity’s WhatsApp integration can handle voice-based interaction, meme and video creation, fact-checking tools, and assistant-style responses.

 

According to Srinivas, support for group chats is also in the pipeline, although its rollout could be delayed due to existing constraints in the WhatsApp API. 

 

Perplexity has also recently rolled out updates to its iOS app, introducing a voice mode and several advanced features that aim to make it a more comprehensive AI assistant