Bing Chat now has the highly-requested dark mode. Here's how to turn it on
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Bing Chat now has the highly-requested dark mode. Here’s how to turn it on
The AI-powered feature is now available in light, dark, or automatic mode.
Photo: Witthaya Prasongsin via Getty Images | Screenshot by Maria Diaz/ZDNET
Microsoft continues to improve its AI-powered Bing Chat in an effort to make the service more accessible for users, and the latest update includes the ability to change its appearance from the default Light mode to Dark mode.
Also: How to use Bing Chat (and how it’s different from ChatGPT)
To recap, Bing Chat is Microsoft’s generative AI chatbot in response to ChatGPT. Microsoft invested heavily into OpenAI and has been adopting the powerful technology behind ChatGPT and the DALL-E image creator into its search engine and across Azure and Microsoft Office.
Since launching at the beginning of the year, Bing AI for desktop has only been presented in Light mode, with visual elements that are presented in brighter hues. But a new Dark mode setting flips things around, arguably for the better.
How to turn on Dark mode in Bing Chat
Setting up dark mode on Bing Chat.
Microsoft
What you’ll need: At the moment, you must use Microsoft Edge to access Bing Chat on your desktop. However, you don’t need to log in to a Microsoft account to change your appearance settings.
Also: Bing AI chat expands to Chrome and Safari for select users
1. Open Bing Chat and go to Settings
Open a new Bing Chat window and click on the hamburger menu next to your name at the top right corner. This will give you access to your Settings.
Screenshot: Maria Diaz/ZDNET
Also: Google and Microsoft partner with OpenAI to form AI safety watchdog group
2. Under Appearance, choose ‘Dark’
In the Bing Chat Settings, look for Appearance. Then, click on Dark.
Bing Chat has three Appearance modes:
- Light: This is the default mode you see when opening Bing Chat. Its colors change depending on your chosen conversation style, whether Creative, Balanced, or Precise, but the light theme prevails.
- Dark: Makes the chat window black, regardless of the conversation style.
- System default: Adjusts to the preset system preferences of your device.
Screenshot: Maria Diaz/ZDNET
That’s all you need to set your Bing Chat appearance to dark mode.
Bing AI is now in dark mode.
Screenshot: Maria Diaz/ZDNET
FAQ
Is dark mode available for the mobile app?
You can’t change the appearance settings for Bing Chat on the mobile app, but the theme will adjust if you have system-wide dark mode turned on. Likewise, if your phone is natively set to light mode, Bing Chat will also be displayed in light mode.
