Bing Chat AI to get actions, plugins, history, video features

Bing Chat AI is getting the biggest update yet, including new Bing Actions, support for plugins, chat history, video answers, and more.

Bing Actions and Plugins
Bing Actions and Plugins / Image: Microsoft
  • Microsoft reveals several new features coming to Bing Chat AI.
  • These new features include “Bing Actions,” which allows the chatbot to perform complete actions.
  • Plugins support opens up Bing Chat to third-party developers.
  • Chat history will allow users to resume conversations across devices.
  • Also, Bing Chat on Edge is getting additional improvements on the desktop and mobile.
  • Finally, the Bing Chat experience is now open to everyone signed in with a Microsoft account.

Microsoft has announced new features and significant changes coming to its Bing Chat AI, including answers with videos and images, chat history, the “Actions” feature, support for plugins, and further integration with Microsoft Edge.

Bing Actions is another significant addition coming to the experience. This new feature will enable you to use the chatbot to perform tasks without moving between sites. For example, if you ask the AI to recommend a restaurant, the chatbot will be able to find a reservation time and help you to book it within the experience. Also, if you’re looking for a movie, the chatbot will be able to play it for you by selecting and opening the service to start playing the movie.

Microsoft is also bringing support for plugins, but these are not plugins for consumers. Instead, it’s a way to allow third-party developers to plug into the Bing Chat experience. The software giant isn’t sharing many details. However, it says it’s working with companies, such as OpenTable for its Bing Actions reservations feature, Wolfram Alpha for visualizations, and OpenAI to open the chatbot to developers.

As part of the latest waves of updates, the company is revamping its chatbot to include images and videos in search results for more visual answers, meaning that you will be able to search for photos and videos of objects, animals, places, and more. In addition, the Bing Image Creator is now expanding to more than 100 languages, allowing more users to create images from text. Furthermore, the company is introducing richer, more visual answers, including charts and graphs and updated formatting of answers.

When using the Bing Chat AI, the chatbot will now be able to save the chat history allowing you to resume the conversation across your devices. Furthermore,  the software giant is working on improving the sharing experience with new export and share features within the chat interface to share the contents of a conversation on social media or export it into a Microsoft Word document.

Also, if you use Microsoft Edge, when you open a chat history link, it’ll open automatically on the browser’s sidebar instead of the page to pick up where you left off without switching tabs. In addition, the company plans to enhance personalization by carrying over context from previous chats in the new conversation.

On Microsoft Edge, the Bing Chat integration is getting some additional improvements, including better tone options for generating text with AI in the compose feature. Also, the chatbot browser integration will improve summarization capabilities for long documents, including PDFs and longer-form websites. On mobile, the browser will be able to be aware of the page context allowing you to make queries to the chatbot about the page, similar to the sidebar on the desktop.

Finally, Microsoft has also announced that Bing Chat is now open to everyone, meaning no more signing up for a waitlist. You can now open Microsoft Edge or the Bing app on mobile and access the Bing Chat AI experience after signing in with your Microsoft account. However, this isn’t the final version. Instead, the company is transitioning from private to public preview.

About the author

Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].