Bing Widget Brings Exciting AI Features To Mobile Android And iOS Devices

Microsoft has announced a wide range of updates to “deliver new AI innovation,” across a variety of its IPs like Bing, Edge, SwiftKey, and Skype. Perhaps the launch which is set to make the biggest splash is the introduction of the Bing Widget, as noted in our headline. This home screen UI hogging widget is coming to both Android and iOS soon, and looks set to beat Google Bard to the punch, which must hurt.

AI innovations have really gained traction over recent months, and there are even fears that the rise in demand for AI processing could impact the PC GPU market. Putting those fears to the side for now, it is also eyebrow-raising to see old Microsoft nimbly get ahead of the likes of Google with its rapid embrace and integration of AI smarts.

Microsoft asserts that starting this week “the Bing experience on both desktop and mobile will get much richer.” It mentions that its search IP will start to offer videos, Knowledge Cards, graphs, better formatting, and social sharing capabilities – all within the easy and natural to use chat widget.

With the new Bing widget you can check out timely information at a glance, and it is a cinch to interact with Bing’s AI via typing or voice (click microphone) input. You can also launch the full Bing app from the widget if that works better for your purposes.

Users will see that Bing is now smart enough to remember conversations across devices. This could be an appealing feature if some queries come to mind while mobile, and you want to dig back through interactions when you get back home or to the office PC. It works both ways, naturally. Microsoft provides an example where you ask about a recipe at home on PC, then while you are out Bing reminds you about the ingredients shopping list, or suggests ingredients substitutions if something is out of stock / season.

A complimentary change within Microsoft’s portfolio is the integration of AI-powered textual composition within SwiftKey. This popular soft-keyboard goes way beyond spell checking now, with its Compose functionality helping with content, message tone, format and length.
Microsoft was also excited to announce that its AI-powered translator has been built-into the SwiftKey keyboard. Users can find it under the Bing button, just like Compose.

For Edge Mobile browser users there are a couple of interesting contextual AI additions. Firstly Bing AI will be able to provide contextual answers based on web pages you are visiting. It gives an example of asking for a wine recommendation when viewing a recipe web page. Other contextual functionality can be delivered from asking Bing about any highlighted text on a web page.

For Skype, Microsoft has made Bing AI available in all group chats. The assistant can be summoned within discussions simply by tagging @Bing directly. It might be useful for planning, calendar and route advice.

Microsoft reminds us it has only been offering Bing AI for 100 days, and has already made great strides. It implies that the next 100 days are going to be just as lively, with the next stop for big announcements being the Build developer conference next week.