By now, there's a good chance you've heard about the new Bing chat. Microsoft began rolling out this new experience in February 2023, which uses OpenAI's GPT-4 large language model to help users talk to Bing in natural human language and have it respond similarly. It's a glimpse into the future of what artificial intelligence can do, and as such, it's worth giving a shot.

As expected, Microsoft's Edge browser is required to use the Bing chat experience. You may not like that at first, but Edge is a very capable browser these days, and it's built on the Chromium engine, so it should work just as well as Google Chrome. You also need to sign up for the Bing preview. There used to be a waitlist, but now you can just go to this website and sign in with your Microsoft Live account using the Edge browser. Then you can start using it.

How to use Bing Chat in Microsoft Edge's Discover panel

The easiest way to access Bing in Microsoft Edge is to use the Discover panel that Microsoft added to the browser alongside Bing's launch. To get started, follow these steps:

1. Launch Microsoft Edge on your PC.
2. Click the Bing button in the top-right corner, just below the window controls.

   

3. The chat interface will open right away. You can choose between a more creative, balanced, or precise tone, depending on what you want to ask. A more creative tone may be helpful if you want to write up some longer text that feels more nuanced, while a precise tone may be better if you want concrete information about something.
5. Once you've selected a tone, you can ask Bing all kinds of things using the text box at the bottom. Here are a few examples:

   

   

   

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6. Bing will automatically reset the conversation after a few turns. Alternatively, you can click the New Topic button next to the text box if you want to start over. This helps Bing stay focused on a given topic.

While the easiest way to access Bing is the Discover panel, you can also use it through the Bing website. Simply go to the Bing homepage and click the Chat link near the top of the page. The experience will be pretty much the same, but naturally with more space for the chat UI.

How to use Bing's Compose feature

When you open the Discover tab in Microsoft Edge, you may also notice another tab for Bing, called Compose. This is an experience that lets you ask Bing to write up a test for you, with any topic you'd like, and with various options for length and formatting.

1. Click the Compose button at the top of the Discover panel.
2. In the first box, enter a topic you'd like Bing to write about.

   

3. Choose a tone for the message to suit the place where you want to share it. You can choose between Professional, Casual, Enthusiastic, Informational, and Funny.
4. Choose a format for the text. Paragraph will generally result in a longer text, as will Blog post, though the latter will have a more informal tone. You can choose Email if you want something formatted for that scenario, and the Ideas option will give you a list of bullet points.
5. Choose the overall length to further specify how long the text should be.
6. Click Generate draft to create a message that matches your criteria.

   

7. You can select and copy the text, or use the Add to site button if you have a page open to insert the text directly.

   It's recommended that you thoroughly read the generated text, as Bing will often have inaccuracies or may not fully understand the context where the text will be used.

The new Bing chat feature inside Edge has a ton of potential, and considering how recent it is, there are likely going to be a lot of changes in the next few months. If you'd like to learn about other Microsoft Edge features, check out how to use features like the gaming homepage Microsoft added last year. You may also want to learn about Windows 11 features, such as how to use Chat with Microsoft Teams.