Microsoft has announced that the new, chat-based version of Bing, is now available on mobile devices, in addition to the desktop experience that launched a couple of weeks ago. The new Bing experience is available through the Bing app itself, as well as through an updated version of the Edge browser, similar to how you can access it on mobile.
The new Bing relies on a natural language model largely based on OpenAI's ChatGPT, though Microsoft has added its own knowledge of how search works so that it works better as a search engine. While the experience on mobile will generally be the same as on desktop, there is one notable benefit — voice access. Since voice search is that much more common on mobile, you can now use it with the new Bing, which brings the experience that much closer to that of Cortana, back when it was still (somewhat) relevant.
Oddly enough, Microsoft is also bringing the new Bing experience to Skype, of all places. For whatever reason (likely related to the 36 million daily active users Microsoft quotes in this announcement), the company has had a hard time letting go of its old messaging service, and it's even bringing this cutting-edge experience to it.
Bing for Skype acts like some of the other bots on the platform. For example, you can mention Bing while in a group chat and ask it a question, which will bring up the relevant search results for everyone in the chat. This can be very useful if you're planning a trip with a group of friends, or even if you're just trying to settle an argument. It's certainly odd that this experience isn't available for Microsoft Teams, which is the service Microsoft has been pushing more aggressively in the past few years.
The new Bing made a strong initial impression when Microsoft demoed it, though things have been rocky in the weeks since. Microsoft has had to limit the number of daily interactions with the Bing chatbot in order to prevent it from going rampant with aggressive responses when pushed by users. Right now, users are limited to six messages per session and a total of 60 messages per day, but Microsoft plans to increase that limit in the near future as it figures out how to prevent this rampancy in longer exchanges.
If you'd like to try the new Bing experience, you can download the Bing, Edge, or Skype using the links below. We're including preview versions of the apps, as those are more likely to have the new features already. You'll still need to have been invited to the preview program for Bing, so don't be too surprised if you haven't been chosen yet.
Source: Microsoft