Microsoft starts Edge Image Creator sidebar icon rollout globally

We are trying this new tool on Edge sidebar: Bing Image Creator. The thesis is: generate the image and insert it right into whatever you happen to be editing. We have a pretty high usage bar for the icons there, if engagement is not stellar, we'll move it behind the plus sign. pic.twitter.com/ATRzUjae9y

— Mikhail Parakhin (@MParakhin) April 5, 2023

Earlier this week, Microsoft’s Mikhail Parakhin shared the company’s test of a dedicated Image Creator in the Edge sidebar. Now, the feature is rolling out to all Edge desktop users, allowing users to generate images in fewer clicks.

One of the most significant capabilities of Bing nowadays is its image generation feature, thanks to OpenAI’s DALL-E model. During its initial rollout, Image Creator was limited to Bing Chat’s Creative mode. Now, the software company wants to give users instant access to this feature by putting a dedicated icon in the Edge sidebar.

Today, Microsoft confirmed to The Verge that the Image Creator would be “available on desktop for Edge users around the world.” By introducing the new icon, users can instantly access the Image Creator of Bing from Edge at any given time. And as mentioned by Parakhin in earlier posts, that was the fundamental idea behind the icon: to allow users “generate the image and insert it right into whatever you happen to be editing.”

At that time, Parakhin noted that the team would move the Image Creator icon behind the add (+) sign depending on user engagement. In this rollout, the software company decided to follow this, giving users a choice on whether to put Image Creator in their sidebar app shortcuts.