GitHub, the world’s leading AI-powered developer platform, has announced a public beta of GitHub Copilot Chat for all GitHub Copilot individual users for free across Visual Studio and VS Code.
Integrated together, GitHub Copilot Chat and the GitHub Copilot pair programmer form a powerful AI-assistant capable of helping developers build at the speed of their minds in the natural language of their choice. It will form the new centerpiece of the software development experience, fundamentally reducing boilerplate work and designating natural language as a new universal programming language for every developer on the planet.
Commenting on the announcement, Shuyin Zhao, VP of Product Management at GitHub, said: “In July, we introduced a public beta of GitHub Copilot Chat, a pivotal component of our vision for the future of AI-powered software development, for all GitHub Copilot for Business users. Today, we’re thrilled to take the next step forward in our GitHub Copilot X journey by releasing a public beta of GitHub Copilot Chat for all GitHub Copilot individual users across Visual Studio and VS Code.We are excited to announce that GitHub Copilot Chat beta will be available for all Copilot Individual users for free. Today, developers are an increasingly diverse and global group of folks across industries, who are tinkering with code, design, and documentation in their free time; contributing to open source projects; conducting scientific research.”
“Today, developers are no longer just people building software for technology companies. They’re an increasingly diverse and global group of folks across industries, who are tinkering with code, design, and documentation in their free time; contributing to open source projects; conducting scientific research; and more. Whether you are a young developer in Brazil learning how to execute a unit test for the first time or a professor in Germany who needs help documenting data, GitHub Copilot Chat enables you to learn and build code through outputs in the language that feels most natural to you,” Zhao added.
Further she added “By enabling the rise of natural language as a new universal programming language, we will democratize software development as we know it, enabling every developer to build the innovation of tomorrow and accelerate human progress, today.”
Anyone signed up for GitHub Copilot for individuals can access the powerful AI assistant that major enterprises are leveraging to turbocharge developer productivity and happiness. Teams of developers and individuals alike can use GitHub Copilot Chat to learn new languages or frameworks, troubleshoot bugs, or get answers to coding questions in simple, natural language outputs—all without leaving the integrated development environment. It can reduce the need for context switching, streamlines the development process, and help developers maintain their focus and momentum.
Here are some of GitHub Copilot Chat’s other powerful features:
- Real-time guidance. GitHub Copilot Chat can suggest best practices, tips, and solutions tailored to specific coding challenges—all in real time. Developers can use GitHub Copilot Chat to learn a new language or upskill at speed.
- Code analysis. With GitHub Copilot Chat, you can break down complex concepts and get explanations of code snippets.
- Fixing security issues. GitHub Copilot Chat can make suggestions for remediation and help reduce the number of vulnerabilities found during security scans.
- Simple troubleshooting. Trying to debug code? GitHub Copilot Chat not only identifies issues, but also offers suggestions, explanations, and alternative approaches.
GitHub Copilot Chat also empowers individual contributors to suggest security patches, enhancing the overall security of open-source projects.
GitHub Copilot Chat beta has been enabled for all Copilot for Individual users for free. Currently, GitHub Copilot Chat is supported in both Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code editors. The GitHub Copilot for Individual users will receive an email notification to guide them on the next steps. Developers not already If one is not already part of the beta program and would like to get started, one can refer to the getting started guide, which is linked to an email notification.
