Microsoft Bing Search app downloads increased 10 times after ChatGPT integration was announced

Like it or not, A.I. powered tools like ChatGPT and GPT-3 are here to stay. In fact, they are so popular right now, that the announcement of ChatGPT integration saw the Microsoft Bing app being downloaded 10 times more than before.

Everyone is playing with ChatGPT, from making it tell jokes, explain stuff, writing program codes, and more. Even in its early phase, the chatbot is quite useful, more importantly it is easy-to-use, and free. This could change in the future, as we have seen with the ChatGPT Plus subscription that was launched in the U.S. recently.

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Microsoft Bing app downloads saw a 10x increase after ChatGPT integration was announced

Techcrunch reported that the Microsoft Bing app downloads saw a 10x increase, based on an estimate provided by data.ai.  And indeed, Microsoft Bing Search is actually among the top 10 downloaded apps on the iOS App Store, you can verify it on Apple's website, it's currently sitting at No.6 in the top free iOS apps chart, just a couple of places behind the world's most popular search engine, Google. This is the Bing app's listing page.

If that's shocking, wait till you hear this. Microsoft Bing was ranking (read languishing) way down at 160 in the Productivity apps category, guess where it is now? Right at the top of the charts, it is the #1 app in the list, which you can view here. That's unbelievable, how exactly did this happen?

A couple of days ago, Microsoft announced support for Open AI's ChatGPT in its search engine Bing, and Edge browser. Google retaliated to Microsoft's move by revealing its own language model called, Bard. That didn't work out quite as expected, as much to the Mountain View company's embarrassment, the A.I. chatbot ended up giving a wrong answer during a live presentation. Let the A.I. wars begin.

Coming back to Microsoft Bing, the fact is, the new Bing with ChatGPT is not available for everyone just yet. There is a waitlist that you have to join before you can access the tool. To try it, go to https://www.bing.com/new.

That's not just what you need to do, there are a few more prerequisites, or hurdles if you will. A Microsoft account is required, and you will need to sign in to it before joining the waitlist. It doesn't support other browsers, the new Bing only works with Microsoft Edge. This is where things take an interesting turn. Microsoft is offering a shortcut for users on the waitlist to get access to Bing powered by ChatGPT quickly.

First, you will need to change the default web browser on your computer to Microsoft Edge. To make things easier, Microsoft has a tool called WebBrowsingOptimizer.exe. That almost sounds like a virus, doesn't it?  The next step to gain quick access to the new Bing, requires users to scan a QR code on the website, to install the Bing on your Android mobile or iPhone.

The 2nd step, right there, is how the Bing app's download surge began.  Before you go and ahead and install Bing and switch to Edge to jump ahead in the waitlist, I'd recommend reading our previous coverage to learn about the privacy implications related to the apps.

Introduce support for ChatGPT, lock it behind the Bing app, make users download it, grant access to the chatbot, and cash in on the A.I. craze. I got to hand it to Microsoft, that is some incredibly smart marketing. Well played!

Have you tried the new Bing with ChatGPT?

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