If you're eager to play with some generative AI tech on your phone, you now have another option: Microsoft has launched an Android app for its Copilot chatbot, and like Copilot in Windows 11, it's free to use and powered by GPT-4 and DALL-E 3.
As noted by @techosarusrex (through New), the Copilot for Android app is available now and appears to have arrived on December 19th. It's free to use and you don't even have to sign in to your Microsoft account – but if you don't sign in, you'll be limited in terms of the number of prompts you can enter and the length of the answers.
In a sense, this app isn't particularly new, as it merely replicates the AI functionality that's already available Bing for Android. However, it removes all the extra Bing features for web search, news, weather, and so on.
There's no word yet on a dedicated Copilot for iOS app, so if you're using an iPhone, you'll have to stick with Bing for iOS for now if you need some AI help. For now, Microsoft hasn't officially said anything about its new Android app.
Text and images
The functionality of the new app will be familiar to anyone who has used Copilot or Bing AI elsewhere. Microsoft has been busy adding the AI everywhere and recently integrated it into Windows 11 as well.
You can ask direct questions as you would in a web search, have complex topics explained in simple terms, have Copilot generate new text on any topic, and much more. The app can also work with text, image and voice prompts.
Based on our testing of the app, it looks like you get five questions or searches per day for free if you don't want to log in. If you tell Microsoft who you are, that limit will be lifted and you'll also get access to image generation capabilities when you log in.
With both Siri and Apple's Google Assistant set to get big AI boosts in the near future, Microsoft doesn't want to be left behind – and the introduction of a separate Copilot app could help position it as a standalone digital assistant that works anywhere.