Microsoft is introducing a bunch of new Bing-related features to its different apps, including Bing, Edge, SwiftKey, and Skype. The features rolling out today are focused on smartphone users, with the company bringing various Bing and Edge desktop features to mobile.
One of the biggest parts of the announcement is the new Bing widget for iOS and Android phones. According to Microsoft, the widget is designed to allow users to jump into the Bing Chat experience immediately with just a tap, adding users can use the device’s microphone to interact with Bing. Speaking of voice input, Microsoft said Bing also received voice and multilingual chat enhancements, so chat and voice interactions with Bing from various users around the globe should improve better starting today.
Smartphone users can also now continue their desktop conversation with Bing with the new QR code scanning on Bing. The Redmond company said it is now rolling out and accessible via the phone icon in the options menu when the answers are clicked on the desktop.
If you are using SwiftKey on your mobile device, you should also now get Bing’s Compose feature (initially available in the Edge sidebar on desktop), allowing it to write compositions for you based on your tone (now includes “Witty” and “Funny” tones), format, and length preferences. This Bing-related update in SwiftKey also brings Microsoft’ AI-powered translator, making it a built-in accessible feature for phones.
Given the series of mobile-centered features mentioned above, it is no surprise that the company is also bringing other Bing and Edge desktop features to smartphones. As such, aside from the Compose feature, Bing on Edge on mobile will soon be able to perform contextual chat from the current page you are viewing. This means apart from summarizing pages, you can directly ask Bing on Edge about the details of the page you are reading. Similarly, the bot will also consider the page’s content being viewed by the user when responding to queries. In the future, Microsoft said you could also highlight certain texts in Edge and ask Bing to clarify their details.
Bing for Skype is also getting improvement, though it is not just for smartphone users. As Microsoft shared, Bing can now be added to any group chat by tagging @Bing directly with “no need for participants to search for Bing to add it to their contacts.”
The software giant stressed that the releases were “just the start of the next 100 days of AI-powered Bing,” adding that it saw “an 8x increase in daily downloads” since the launch of the revamped search engine. However, recent data show that Bing and Edge barely make dents on Google Search and Chrome’s market share despite Microsoft’s relentless efforts. Unfortunately, these numbers could worsen for Microsoft, especially with Google’s recent advances in its AI initiatives. During its 2023 I/O conference, the search titan confirmed a slew of new AI creations. The event highlighted a lot of things, but one of its main stars was the “smarter” Bard, which is expected to boost Google Search and other products further and bring Bing to complete oblivion.
