In case you missed it, ChatGPT rival 'Copilot' is now on iOS and Android

While you were deep in holiday hibernation, Microsoft quietly launched Android and iOS versions of Copilot, formerly known as Bing Chat.

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The Android launch was first spotted by X user @technosarusrex, then picked up by Neowin on Dec. 26. Three days later, Microsoft launched an iOS and iPadOS version of the generative AI chatbot.

Copilot on iOS looks like Bing Chat, but is a new standalone app. Credit: Screenshot: Mashable / Microsoft

The Copilot app functions similarly to the ChatGPT app. It can chat with you, draft messages and emails, and supports text-to-image generation. Since the Copilot large language model is powered by OpenAI, you can toggle on GPT-4 to use instead of the presumed default GPT-3.5. That's kind of a big deal because you have to pay for an ChatGPT Plus subscription in order to use GPT-4 directly through OpenAI. But with the Copilot app, GPT-4 access is free. Copilot also has OpenAI's most advanced AI image generator DALL-E 3.

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The launch of a new Copilot app is a bit confusing because there's already a Bing Chat feature on the Bing app, which, on the surface, has the same look and function. In November, Microsoft rebranded Bing Chat to Copilot, which then became the umbrella term for all of Microsoft's generative AI products. It's unclear whether the Copilot app will eventually replace the Bing Chat app, but Mashable has reached out to Microsoft for clarification and will update the story if we hear back.

The Bing app still has Bing Chat functionality, which looks similar to the standalone Copilot app. Credit: Screenshot: Mashable / Microsoft

In the meantime, you can access Microsoft's AI-powered chat through two different apps: Bing and Copilot.