What you need to know
- Bing Chat is now available on Google Chrome and Safari.
- Its offerings are limited significantly on those browsers.
- Users will occasionally receive prompts to transition to Microsoft Edge.
- Bing Chat now features a dark mode as well.
At the beginning of this year, Microsoft plunged into generative AI face-first with its own AI Copilot for the web, Bing Chat, shortly after extending its partnership with OpenAI following its multi-billion-dollar investment. Many users have shown interest in the technology represented by Bing's 100 million daily active users milestone.
A ton of new features and updates have shipped to the AI-powered assistant, including the capability to ask the chatbot questions using your voice, visual search, and more.
Unfortunately, the chatbot has been exclusive to the Microsoft Edge browser, at least until recently, thus limiting the chatbot's accessibility to a finite number of users. Many users have long awaited Bing Chat to make its way to other browsers, though it's still possible to access the tool on any browser via extensions.
Microsoft is finally availing the chatbot to third-party browsers, specifically, Google Chrome and Safari, as spotted by Windows Latest. And while this expands the tool's reach, its offerings will be limited on both browsers.
First, Bing Chat's word prompt is limited to 2,000 characters, which is significantly low compared to the 4,000 limit on Microsoft Edge. Next up, the chatbot's turn limit on Google Chrome and Safari is set at five turns, which is a major setback, especially for users who would prefer to generate in-depth and long-form content. This is also a significant downgrade compared to Bing Chat's 30 chats per session and 300 chats per day limit on Edge.
And lastly, users accessing the chatbot via Chrome and Safari will occasionally receive pop-ups, prompting them to download and transition to Microsoft Edge for a better experience.
In other Bing Chat news, the chatbot now sports a dark mode. To apply the new theme, navigate the settings, click Appearance, and select Dark or System Default. It's worth noting that the feature is not available for everyone yet, though it's expected to hit general availability soon.
Windows Central's take
Last week, while launching Google Chrome on my Windows PC, I received a prompt to try the new AI-powered Bing, which redirected me to enable the Microsoft Bing extension to set Bing as my default search engine.
However, the chatbot's offerings were significantly limited, as I couldn't access Chat Mode. I was informed that the feature was only available to users with access to the new Bing.
Bing Chat making its way to other browsers is an incredible feat, though the limitations are quite concerning. Evidently, you'll need to switch to Microsoft Edge to get the full Bing Chat experience.
Users have expressed reluctance to switch to Edge in the past couple of years because of its "bloatedness." As such, it will be interesting to see whether users will transition to access the tool. At the same time, Google has availed Bard across other third-party browsers, ultimately expanding its reach to more users.
Microsoft already shipped Bing Chat to broad availability and scrapped the Microsoft Account requirement to access the tool. It'll be interesting to see the next steps the company takes.
Apple is also reportedly working on its own ChatGPT AI alternative to take on Google and Microsoft. The tool will be based on Apple's large-language model dubbed Ajax.
