For a long time, Bing was a bit of a joke in tech circles, a search engine that couldn't hold a candle to Google's supremacy, but its relatively recent embracing of AI has suddenly made it a real contender.
As part of its integration of AI tools, Microsoft has now pushed live an update to its Swiftkey keyboard app on both iOS and Android that lets it take advantage of Bing's new AI features, including advice on your tone, search options and a full chat function. Here's how it all works.
How to get Bing chat in Swiftkey
The good news is that Microsoft announced the addition of this feature without any sort of lead-in time - it's live now, and everyone has access.
So, whether you're on iOS or Android the simple step you need to follow is just to check that you have the most recent version of Swiftkey installed on your device.
If you do, when you open up your keyboard you'll see a blue Bing icon at its top left.
Tapping on this brings up the new options, although there are some catches.
The first option, Search, is open to everyone once you agree to its terms and conditions. The other two, though, require you to have access to the Bing preview that currently houses the features.
So, unless you have access, you won't be able to use Tone and Chat quite yet
How does Tone work in Swiftke
If you're wondering what these new features actually do, wonder no more
Tone is a simple feature that basically lets you double-check with Bing's AI function how it thinks a message you're writing is coming across, with tips for how to change i
There are plenty of apps that do this in a more divorced way, giving tips on how to sound more professional or more personal depending on the context, but this bakes that right into your keyboard
It could be really helpful if you're crafting an important email and want to nail the tone the first time.
How does Chat work in Swiftkey?
Chat is a little more involved, though, as it basically gives you the full-fat Chat feature that Bing houses on desktop and browser searches, right there on your keyboard.
This means you can have a little conversation with Bing's chatbot and get back a pretty sophisticated set of responses to help you reach decisions or compose a bit of writing.
Of course, as with all AI chat options at the moment, you will find that the bot sometimes gets facts wrong or becomes a little garbled, but the tech is nonetheless hugely impressive.