You can now search by image on Bing chat, but it comes with one big issue

Microsoft is close to fully releasing the multimodal capability that lets you search by image on Bing chat. The Redmond-based tech giant’s search engine is lagging behind its competitor, Google’s Bard, in this particular aspect, so this announcement is a piece of huge news.

As confirmed by Microsoft’s Mikhail Parakhin on Twitter, the widespread implementation of multimodal/image understanding in Bing’s AI chat has just begun today. While the full rollout will be completed tomorrow, it is already “99%” complete. 

OK, we have finally rolled out the Multimodal/Image understanding everywhere (well, almost – the rollout will fully be done tomorrow, but 99% today). pic.twitter.com/CIuGIXQNSK

— Mikhail Parakhin (@MParakhin) July 18, 2023

Prior to the full rollout, Microsoft has been conducting tests of the feature with a limited number of Bing insiders. 

To take this new feature out for a spin, you can simply click on the image icon on the bottom right of their screen and select the image that you want to search. You can paste the link to the image, upload it from your computer, or take it from your device’s camera.

In addition to the search by image feature already available in Bing Chat, Parakhin also confirmed that it will be coming to the right pane of Edge, where Bing Chat is natively built in and located. Additionally, users will be able to control the browser’s settings through word prompts from the Bing Chat pane, similar to how it works on Copilot.

However, the feature still comes with a few issues here and there. One user reported that the search-by-image feature in Bing Chat is not compatible with the microphone feature. The user also said that the live region for screen reader users is not working properly — Parakhin confirmed and Microsoft is currently looking into it. 

Have you tried to search by image on Bing chat? Let us know in the comments!