Microsoft is integrating its Bing chatbot into its smartphone keyboard app SwiftKey on Android and iOS, the corporate announced on Thursday. The brand new integration lets customers chat with the bot straight from their cell keyboard and seek for issues with out having to change between apps.
Bing boasts three main options on SwiftKey: Chat, Tone and Search. With the Chat performance, you possibly can entry the brand new Bing on the go for extra detailed queries. The corporate explains that the performance will be helpful for quite a lot of issues. As an illustration, you need to use the chat performance in case you’re searching for a intelligent pun to reply to somebody’s message, or if you wish to shortly discover what dessert pairs nicely with a particular dish while you’re planning a celebration with your folks on cell.
Picture Credit: Microsoft
The Tone characteristic is designed to make it simpler for customers to speak extra successfully by utilizing AI to customise their textual content to suit any state of affairs. The characteristic will be helpful in situations the place you’re struggling to be formal in your work emails otherwise you’re studying a brand new language and need assistance with phrase selection, Microsoft says. You should utilize the characteristic to make your sentences sound extra skilled, informal, well mannered or concise sufficient for a social media submit.
With the Search performance, you possibly can shortly search the net straight out of your keyboard, which primarily removes the necessity for switching between apps. The corporate outlines that the characteristic can be utilized while you’re speaking to a pal and need to look one thing up mid-conversation.
The brand new options in SwiftKey are accessible in all markets the place the brand new Bing is out there. Anybody can use Search now, however accessing Tone and Chat requires customers to signal into their Microsoft Account that has been authorised to entry the brand new Bing preview.
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Microsoft notes that the replace is out there at present, and that after you have acquired the replace, you will notice the Bing icon above the keyboard. From there, you possibly can click on on the precise characteristic you’d like to make use of; Chat, Tone or Search.
It’s price noting that Microsoft had planned to shut down SwiftKey on iOS final 12 months, however later determined to not. Microsoft is probably going hoping to create some buzz and recognition round SwiftKey by integrating its new Bing into the product.
The corporate additionally introduced at present that it’s launching larger entry to Bing in group chats on Skype. Microsoft built-in Bing into Skype again in February in preview. Group chats now solely want one member with entry to the preview to speak to Bing.
Picture Credit: Microsoft
“This implies as a gaggle you need to use the brand new Bing from inside the Skype app similar to you’d use the brand new Bing on desktop; you need to use it to, for instance, settle a debate, assist plan a gaggle journey, or discover a restaurant for you all to fulfill at in individual,” the corporate wrote in a weblog submit. “To get began, seek for ‘Bing in Skype’ in your Skype contacts and add it to a gaggle chat, similar to you’d another contact. Similar to on desktop, the brand new Bing chat responses within the Skype app which reference info are cited with net hyperlinks to sources, so you possibly can double-check the place the data is coming from.”
As well as, Microsoft introduced that Bing is now accessible by way of Microsoft Begin, which is the corporate’s personalised information studying expertise.