Bing

Microsoft’s Bing AI adds contextual chat, widget on Android and iOS

Ben Schoon | May 16 2023 - 9:19 am PT

In a slew of new updates, Microsoft is improving the experience of using its Bing AI on Android and iOS with a new homescreen widget and more.

Announced in a blog post today, Microsoft revealed that Bing is getting a homescreen widget on both Android and iOS. The new widget will allow users to launch Bing itself or use the AI chat experience using the keyboard or your voice. It’s a nice addition and one that beats Google to the punch as the company plans a similar widget for Bard.

The Bing app on mobile is also adding the ability to continue your conversation with the AI chatbot across mobile and desktop instances. This won’t be fully automatic, though – users will need to use a QR code to move the conversation. This will be available to all users “within the next week.”

Microsoft is also adding support for SwiftKey to compose messages using Bing’s AI.

Further, and more exciting, is Bing AI’s new ability to use contextual information from webpages you’re using in Microsoft Edge on iOS and Android. This allows Bing to see the page you’re using and answer questions with that added context, as well as add the ability to summarize that page on request. This also works with selected text.

Microsoft explains:

With Bing Chat in the Edge mobile app, you can simply tap on the Chat icon on the bottom navigation bar and ask what wine would pair best with the recipe you’re viewing. You can also ask follow-up questions until you have exactly what you need. With this feature, while reading an article or document online, you can also tap the Bing Chat icon and ask Chat to summarize the content for you – so you can get info quicker while you’re on the go!

The latest updates to Bing across platforms also brings further language support, new “Witty” and “Funny” tones to the AI within SwiftKey, and translator integration in SwiftKey, and Bing AI is now available within all Skype group chats.