Microsoft is bringing its AI-powered Bing to mobile devices and adding a new voice chat function.
Initially available only on the desktop, the chatbot has been added to the Android and iOS mobile apps for Bing, Edge, and Skype as a preview release, Microsoft announced on Wednesday.
The other major news is the addition of voice chat; the ChatGPT-powered Bing can now converse with you verbally, making it more like Microsoft’s Cortana voice assistant. The voice input is already available for the company’s Bing app and is also coming to the desktop.
However, the mobile version of the new Bing is only available for those who were admitted into the preview beta for AI-powered chatbot. So you’ll still need to sign up for the preview through Microsoft’s waitlist to get access.
Redmond called the voice chat “one of the preview community’s most requested features.” By default, the Bing mobile app will ask you to speak to the chatbot through voice input by tapping a microphone icon. For text input, you can hit the keyboard icon.
That said, your conversations may be brief. Last Friday, Microsoft imposed chat restrictions on the new Bing after revealing that long conversations can cause the AI-powered program to go off the rails. As a result, you can only start 60 chats per day and six chats per turn before the program.
To start a new topic, click the “broom” icon in the left corner. We encountered the chatbot timing out on certain queries, requiring us to start a new topic. Microsoft says: “In the first few days of testing these mobile experiences, you may occasionally find connectivity issues in low-bandwidth situations. We’re aware of the issue and are working on a fix."
Microsoft is also bringing the AI-powered Bing to Skype, a first for the company. Bing has been designed to act as a virtual assistant that can offer helpful answers during chats.
“Simply add Bing to the group, as you would any Skype contact, and now you can ask Bing to answer questions and provide information for the entire group,” Microsoft said. “For example, if your family is chatting about the next family reunion, you can simply ask Bing for suggestions on travel destinations, expected weather forecasts, and interesting events around your time of travel, and everyone in the chat will get access to the results.”
AI-powered Bing can also converse in 100 languages and act as a translator during chats.