Bing Chat Sidebar in Google Chrome? This extension will make it possible.

Bing Chat
The Bing Sidebar is currently limited to Microsoft Edge, but an extension brings it to Chrome. (Image credit: Microsoft)
  • This new extension will help you leverage Bing Chat's capabilities as you would on Microsoft Edge.
  • Microsoft hasn't granted third-party browsers access to Bing Chat.
  • There are several extensions available that you can use to access Bing Chat on any browser.

Microsoft's AI-powered chatbot, Bing Chat, shipped to open preview over a month ago. And while the company continues to push more updates in a bid to enhance the tool's accessibility, including increasing its turn limit to 30 chats per session and 300 chats per day, not everyone is able to leverage its capabilities.

The company also did away with the Microsoft Account requirement to access the chatbot. But in turn, it placed a five chats per session limit on establishing control over unrestricted chats and, likely in an effort to get more people to sign up to leverage the tool's capabilities.

If you don't use Microsoft Edge as your default browser on Windows, you might have already realized that you can't access Bing Chat on third-party browsers. It's exclusive to Microsoft Edge.

As we speak, there are several extensions that you could use to bypass this limitation and access the chatbot on third-party browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox, Brave, and more.

Another extension in the works will help users bring Bing Chat's Sidebar to Google Chrome, as spotted over at the r/bing channel on Reddit. At the time of writing, the extension has already been submitted to the Chrome web store and is awaiting review. That means you can't use it as it hasn't been published yet.

It was also cited that the extension works just as well as it does in Edge.

It works exactly as the Edge sidebar version, with access to the webpage.

u/wonderfuly on Reddit

While Microsoft hasn't added support for third-party browsers, Vivaldi recently developed a new workaround allowing users to access Bing Chat in the browser

The Chromium-based browser was able to achieve this by changing its User-Agent strings, thus allowing it to "pretend" to be Microsoft Edge. In the future, Microsoft will grant access to all browsers.

In other news, it might also be possible to detach Edge's Sidebar and use it on Windows 11 desktop soon, regardless of whether you've launched the browser.

Kevin Okemwa
Contributor

Kevin Okemwa is a seasoned tech journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya with lots of experience covering the latest trends and developments in the industry. With a passion for innovation and a keen eye for detail, he has written for leading publications such as OnMSFT, MakeUseOf, and Windows Report, providing insightful analysis and breaking news on everything revolving around the Microsoft ecosystem. While AFK and not busy following the ever-emerging trends in tech, you can find him exploring the world or listening to music.