May 16, 2016 (chinadaily) -- Microsoft's Bing Chat today added some major improvements for mobile users with the introduction of contextual chat for its Edge browser on mobile, Bing widgets for iOS and Android, And the ability to have continuous Bing Chat conversations between mobile and desktop.

Starting today, users can now start a Bing Chat conversation on a PC and continue it on mobile. As an example, Microsoft gave, a user could have Bing Chat create a recipe for the user on a PC, and then ask for an alternative on the mobile app if a certain ingredient is missing when the user arrives at the grocery store. The feature will be rolled out gradually starting today and will be available to all iOS and Android users over the next week.

The second big mobile change is contextual chat in the iOS and Android versions of Edge. This is very similar to the feature that exists in the Bing sidebar in the Edge desktop version, which lets the mobile version of the browser read the context of the website the user is viewing. Users can tap the Bing Chat icon at the bottom of the Edge to ask questions about the website they are viewing, or even have it summarize the article or document they are reading for them. The Edge mobile version will also support selected text actions, so users can highlight a piece of text and Bing will explain or summarize it. The two new Edge features will be rolled out to mobile users soon, Microsoft said.

Microsoft also brought a mobile widget for iOS and Android users that can be pinned to the home screen for quick access to Bing Chat. The widget includes a Bing icon that takes you directly to Bing Chat and a microphone icon that allows you to ask questions by voice. The feature will be available on iOS and Android this week, and Microsoft will also improve language support for its voice input.

IT Home previously reported that Bing support was recently added to the SwiftKey keyboard for iOS and Android, and Microsoft has now updated it to make it possible to compose full messages with tone, format, and length options. This is the same functionality used to compose messages in the Edge sidebar, and on mobile devices, users will be able to configure messages and copy them instantly to messaging applications and emails. An AI-powered translator is now also built into the SwiftKey keyboard, as well as witty and funny tone options. Finally, Skype has added Bing Chat to group chats. If you're on Skype, just @Bing in the conversation and the chatbot will respond to the inquiry and the conversation.