News this week about Microsoft’s plans to add ChatGPT-like features to search engine Bing led its companion mobile app to the top of the App Store’s charts as of Wednesday. In the US App Store, the Bing app soared to number 12 among all free iPhone apps, and Microsoft’s Edge browser is currently the number three utility app. Globally, new downloads of the Bing app have increased tenfold, according to preliminary estimates from app intelligence company data.ai.
The move shows that there is considerable consumer demand for these new AI experiences, and users may even try new search engines and other browsers to gain access.
On Tuesday, Microsoft unveiled the new Bing.com for the first time, including the highly anticipated new next-generation OpenAI large-scale language model integration. The update adds his ChatGPT-like experience to the search engine itself, allowing users to converse with his AI chatbot to handle more complex queries, write LinkedIn posts, and interact with selected content. You can help with the creation task. Microsoft also demoed a new version of the Edge web browser with the same AI features built into the sidebar for easy access.
But while a new version of Bing has technically launched, it’s still in limited preview for the time being.
Users who want to try out new AI features must first join the waiting list. Microsoft said “millions” of users will be invited from the waiting list in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, the company has cleverly introduced ways to move up the waiting list. On the landing page, Microsoft suggests users can quickly access the new Bing after completing a few additional steps. This includes setting Microsoft Search as the default on your PC and scanning a QR code to install the Microsoft Bing app on your phone.
Image credit: Bing Waitlist website
The latter is clearly what caused the app to soar up the App Store charts, and it’s gone up dramatically.
Prior to Microsoft’s AI news, Bing was never a popular app. For example, as of last week, the app ranked #160 on the US App Store productivity apps chart. It never made it to the US App Store overall top charts. As of this writing, it’s approaching the top 10 in the US in less than a week, as well as the #2 productivity app.
Image credit: Bing app movement data.ai chart
Without consumer demand, Bing’s apps wouldn’t have changed as much despite Microsoft’s drive to download them.
Of course, it’s worth pointing out that the App Store charts can be easily manipulated by new downloads bursting in for a limited amount of time. This is why TikTok marketing of “going word of mouth” for your app is so effective. Still, the Bing app’s move is an interesting signal of demand for AI and a potential threat to Google.
Google already pays Apple billions of dollars a year to make Safari the default search engine. But if many consumers moved to another web search app like Bing or Edge to try out new AI features, one of the biggest platforms consumers use to browse the web, Google You may lose market share.
It’s also possible that some new users of the Bing app believe they can access AI features from the mobile app. To clarify, it still isn’t. The app has recently been updated, but Microsoft makes no promises in Bing’s App Store description about using AI from this native iOS experience.
In addition to downloading Bing, some users may also download Microsoft’s Edge browser to their iPhone, as instructed on Microsoft’s website. The Edge app didn’t climb the charts as quickly as Bing, but it landed him at No. 3 on the U.S. App Store’s top utility charts, up slightly from his No. 7 spot on Monday.
More concrete numbers for total new installs may be revealed in the coming weeks. If so, update with those numbers.
