Do you want to get early access to Bing Chat?
This new feature from Microsoft lets you talk to their search engine in a natural conversational style and get answers fast.
And because Microsoft is an early investor in OpenAI, Bing chat is using the latest and greatest language model (GPT-4) from OpenAI to power Bing chat.
The AI chat feature in a search engine will fundamentally change the way we use the internet.
In this blog post, I will guess why I got early access to Bing chat and what you can do too to get the same.
How I got early access to Bing Chat
I think the biggest factor that contributed to my being an early tester for Bing is that I have been using Microsoft’s Edge browser for the past 3 years. And not only that, I am a big tech enthusiast, and I have been using Edge’s relatively unstable preview build alongside the stable one for the past 2 years.
If you don’t know, Edge has a stable release that is baked into the Windows operating system for everyone to use. In addition to that, Edge also has a few preview build versions which are the first to get the latest features for testing purposes. Currently, there are 3 builds that you can try out from the Microsoft Edge Insider program:
Do not, however, believe that I am using Edge as a workaround or that I am unable to download Google Chrome. I was using Chrome before switching to Edge, but I wasn’t completely satisfied with it. Sure, it has some fantastic extensions, but there isn’t much else to keep me there. Also, it is a resource hog, putting a strain on my 8-year-old i5-3rd-gen processor.
I’ve tried several other browsers, including Opera, Brave, Vivaldi, and Mozilla, but Edge is the best fit for my needs. Microsoft Edge does have some useful features that justify the switch.
Perhaps using the preview build convinced Microsoft that I would be a good fit for preview versions of Bing chat as well.
Bing points were another factor that I believe contributed to my being an early tester.
When you use the Bing search engine, Microsoft rewards you with points. To earn those points, you must be logged in to your Microsoft account.
However, I must point out that I am not a fan of the Bing search engine. I use Google exclusively. The first thing that I did when I bought a new Mac was installed Edge and made Google the default search engine.
The reward points that I got in Bing were from the unintentional searches that I performed using Bing such as in the start menu or to test out Bing in the Edge sidebar.
What to do to get early access to Bing Chat
To get access to Bing chat, you will first have to join the waitlist. There’s a multiple million users long waiting list as per this tweet by Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s head of consumer marketing.
You will have to head over to Bing.com/new and sign in with your Microsoft account. If you don’t have one, you can create an account right then and there.
After signing in, you have to click on the “Join the waitlist” button.
You don’t have to do anything else but Microsoft suggests you do a few things to bump up your chances of getting early access —
- Install the Microsoft Edge browser
- Set the default Search Engine to Bing
However, I myself have never set my search engine to Bing but you might wanna do that to please Microsoft.
If you don’t want to use Bing, you can just set it as the default browser in the edge browser and get on with the browser that you have been using as your daily driver.
That’s all you have to do guys. I hope you get on the Bing chat train as soon as possible. It is an adventurous ride.
That’s all guys for this blog post. What else do you think will work? Let me know in the comments!
Further reading: