Microsoft tests Bing Chat on Chrome and Safari browsers

When Microsoft released Bing Chat, their GPT-4-powered AI chat assistant, to the public back in February, the function saw an increase of 100 million users in a single month. The fascinating thing about that was that, despite the chat assistant being used by many users, it has only been accessible through Microsoft products like the Edge browser and the Bing app. That finally seems to be altering.

According to reports, users of Google Chrome and Apple's Safari browsers can now access the chat assistant, as they personally received a notification in Windows 10 and 11 informing them that the assistant is now accessible through other browsers. The chat assistant can be used in both light and dark modes (or the dynamic setting, which changes depending on the operating system setting), according to users who have used Chrome and Safari to use it.

However, it appears that Microsoft is launching Bing Chat in both of those browsers with fewer features than those are now offered to consumers in Edge. The article claims that "Microsoft is restricting Chrome's Bing Chat functionality. Our studies revealed that Chrome's Bing only supports five messages each discussion, compared to Microsoft Edge's support for 30. In a similar vein, Edge supports 4,000 characters but Bing in Chrome only supports 2,000.

Due to the fact that Bing Chat was only available in Edge and many users just couldn't be bothered to switch browsers for one specific purpose—or switch completely, of course—many people stopped using Bing Chat. Bing Chat's user base may once again soar now that it is accessible in both!