Bing just beat Google in the race to have its AI chatbot as your smartphone home screen widget
Earlier this month, Google made its intentions reportedly known to bring its AI chatbot, Bard, to Android devices as a home screen widget. However, in a blog post today, Microsoft's Bing has announced that they are rolling out their own this week to both Android and iOS.
Although no timeframe was given on when the Bard Android widget would be available, we knew that this was an important next step considering Google's recent laser focus on AI, as evident in every single Google I/O presentation this year. It was also rumored that this widget would come first to Pixel phones before it makes its way to other Android devices.
Now, Microsoft is once again beating Google to the punch when it comes to rolling out its contextual AI chatbot on as many platforms as possible. Bing AI will now be part of the Bing app on both Android and iOS with a Bing Chat widget available to be added on the home screen.
Widgets are a great way to get timely information at a glance, or directly access features in your favorite apps. This week, we’re launching a new Bing Chat widget that you can add to your iOS or Android home screen. Soon, you’ll be able to click the Bing icon to land directly in the new Bing Chat experience, or click the microphone icon to verbally ask a question.
This isn't Microsoft's first attempt at bringing Bing's AI chatbot to mobile, though. Earlier last month, Microsoft incorporated Bing Chat into the SwiftKey app for Android, a feature that has been expanded upon starting today by adding an AI compose feature that will help you draft a message based on your preferred tone, format, and length.
To round things off as far as AI is concerned, Microsoft is also making contextual chat improvements in the Edge mobile app, adding the capability to ask it questions about the page in the mobile browser you are currently viewing, including asking it to summarize it. It's evident that Microsoft is taking its investment in OpenAI very seriously and does not intend to sit on its laurels, specially not following Google's very recent AI-heavy Google I/O event.
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