Microsoft Bing Chat is in open preview, and will add chat history, visual search and more

Over the past couple of weeks, Microsoft has been fairly quiet with its updates on its Bing Chat service. However, there have been hints that the company was preparing some big announcements for its AI chatbot. Today, the company revealed a ton of new and upcoming features for Bing Chat and its Edge web browser. That includes the news that Bing Chat is now in full Open Preview mode.

While Microsoft seemed to have eliminated the Bing Chat waitlist a couple of months ago, the company has now officially stated that there is indeed no more waitlist to try out the chatbot. All you need is a Microsoft Account and you are all set to use Bing Chat on mobile or via Edge on the desktop.

Microsoft claims that there are now over 100 million daily active users for Bing Chat, with over half a billion total chats since its launch. It also says that daily installs of the Bing mobile app have gone up four times more than normal since Bing Chat was first introduced.

One of the most requested features by Bing Chat users is a way to save previous chats. Today, Microsoft said that ability will be put in “shortly”, allowing users to stop a chat in mid-session and then return again where the chat was paused. It added:

And when you want to dig into something deeper and open a Bing chat result, your chat will move to your Edge sidebar, so you can keep your chat on hand while you browse. Over time, we’re exploring making your chats more personalized by bringing context from a previous chat into new conversations.

Microsoft will also be adding ways to quickly export chat conversations and also share them on social media. It stated:

For times when you want to easily share your conversation with others in social media or continue iterating on a newly discovered idea, you can export it directly – the format stays the same to make an easy transition to continue in collaborative tools like Microsoft Word.

In March, Microsoft launched Bing Image Creator, a way to use text prompts to create art with generative AI. Since then the company claims that over 200 million images have been generated with the AI program. Today, the company said that Bing Image Creator is expanding its reach.

Previously it only supported English, but now the AI art maker can now accept text prompts from all of Bing’s over 100 supported languages. The company added it is working to add visual searches to Bing Chat, so you can upload images in the chat to search for content related to it in Bing. It will also add visual elements for searches in chat, including things like charts and graphs.

Microsoft also revealed some changes coming to its Edge browser in relationship to Bing:

Edge mobile will also soon include page context, so you can ask questions in Bing chat related to the mobile page you’re viewing. The compose feature in sidebar can also now tailor drafts based on feedback you give like tone, length, phrasing and more.

Bing Chat will also offer improvements for summaries of large articles and documents within Edge, and will introduce what Microsoft calls Edge actions:

Available in the coming weeks, people will soon be able to lean on AI to complete even more tasks with fewer steps. For example, if you want to watch a particular movie, actions in Edge will find and show you options in chat in the sidebar and then play the movie you want from where it’s available.

Microsoft adds that it will continue to monitor the use of Bing Chat to make sure that its safeguards are working for the ethical use of its AI tools. It stated:

Together with our partners at OpenAI, we’ve continued to implement safeguards to defend against harmful content based on what we’re learning and seeing in preview. Our teams continue to work to address issues such as misinformation and disinformation, content blocking, data safety and preventing the promotion of harmful or discriminatory content in line with our AI principles.

The new info on Bing Chat updates comes on the same day that the CEOs of Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic will be meeting with US Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington DC to discuss plans for keeping the use of AI ethical and responsible.