Today Microsoft has updated their Bing Search app on Android, and it comes with some significant improvements. For those without the app, it offers much more than search, letting you discover places, news, movies and more.
Today’s update comes with a re-design of the homepage, navigation, and tabs, as well as in-page translation and other improvements. Microsoft has also adopted Accelerated Mobile Pages, an open-source initiative that helps apps load faster.
Bing for Android Changelog
The changelog is fairly short and doesn’t cover much more than we’ve already mentioned. However, wording is important, so here’s the list in its entirety:
- “Re-designed homepage, navigation and tabs
- In-page translation
- Performance and stability improvements”
The redesign is clearly the biggest change here, and we’ve provided screenshots of the new UI for you below. It’s a definite improvement over the previous version.
AMP Integration
The other major change to Bing Search is support for AMP. AMP originated from Google, and sports some advantages over regular pages. For a start, AMP files take advantage of different architectural methods to create an overall faster experience.
It also makes it easier to create pages that are tailored specifically for mobile, with support for lots of content that is structured correctly and optimized. Other than Google, Microsoft the first big search engine to adopt the technology.
AMP is integrated primarily in the search function of both iOS and Android. As results are loading, the Bing App checks if each article has an AMP page. If there are, the pages are given preference. If not, Bing applies other performance techniques to the pages to ensure they are also quick.
“We started experimenting with AMP in our Bing App last May and have noticed that AMP pages load, on average, approximately 80% faster than non-AMP pages” says Marcelo De Barros, Group Engineering Manager of AMP integration at Bing. “Lighter pages also translate into less data being transferred over the network, requiring less network bandwidth to be downloaded.”
According to the Bing team, AMP adoption has increased significantly as a result of their announcements. With the Bing integration now widely available that number will only grow, resulting in a faster and more responsive experience for all.
You can download the latest version of Bing Search from the Google Play Store.
