Microsoft is making Bing Chat available to everyone, coming with plugins later
Microsoft is making Bing Chat available to all users. The AI chatbot is now an Open Preview. Previously, this was a private preview for which users had to register on a waiting list. Bing Chat will also get support for plugins “soon”.
Microsoft reports that Bing is now an Open Preview and that it no longer has a waiting list. Users can now use the chatbot in the Bing search engine and Edge web browser by logging in with their Microsoft account, the company confirms. The tech giant previously experimented with omitting the waiting list; users could already register for the Bing waiting list in March and then received immediate access, without further waiting period. The company has now completely scrapped the waiting list.
In addition, Microsoft is introducing several new features in Bing. For example, the chatbot can now also provide answers with images and videos and prepare more ‘visual’ answers with graphs, charts and a new layout. The Bing Image Creator will also be extended with support for all languages supported by Bing. According to Microsoft, there are “more than a hundred”.
Furthermore, Bing will have a chat history that allows users to view past conversations. In time, Microsoft wants to ‘experiment’ with personalizing chats by adding ‘context from previous chats’ to new conversations.
The tech giant says it will soon add support for third-party plugins to Bing. The company mentions upcoming plug-ins from OpenTable for making restaurant reservations or Wolfram Alpha for creating mathematical visualizations, among others. The company will share more details on this later this month during Microsoft Build.