Microsoft has released an update to the Bing app for iPhone that brings a redesigned homepage, the ability to access search history and bookmarks offline, quick answers, and more.
Advertisement
The knowledge and action graph isn’t dissimilar to Google’s own Knowledge Graph: It’s a database that pulls up relevant info for a search term based on connections between the massive amount of data on the internet. Find movies, reviews, showtimes, and the apps you need to stream them. Bing for iPhone delivers that, giving you the most important information from familiar choices at the top, along with links to apps to help you get to even more information quickly and easily.
Customers don’t just get irritated when you screw up cross-channel personalization.
That’s no coincidence. The new version of Bing on iPhone takes full advantage of the Bing Knowledge and Action Graph, so that you cannot only surface information on people, places, and things, but also get things done in other apps. And if you don’t have the specific app installed, Bing will just show you the mobile web page instead. The app is available now from the app store and you can get a taste of it by checking the gallery below.
The entry screen of the Bing app has been redesigned, as well. Netflix, EventBrite, TripAdvisor and Apple Maps are the apps shown to be linked, with more for the users to discover.
As with the Google search app, you can search using your voice, and use the iPhone’s camera to get QR and barcode results. The application uses deep links from across all user’s apps to provide search results.
Advertisement
Most of these functions that are included in the Bing app can be found in other products, such as Yelp, but what makes this app better is that it combines multiple app core strengths into one app. I can actually see myself using this app when I travel but one thing to keep in mind is that this app, for now, is U.S. only. While those default tools are likely good enough for a lot of users, the new Bing app definitely feels like a more “mobile-native” search experience.
