- Microsoft-owned code repository company GitHub announced it has launched an iOS app and released improved notifications
GitHub, the code repository service owned by Microsoft, announced at its annual Universe conference that it has launched a few new products. Specifically, GitHub has launched a native iOS app and it is also now offering an improved notifications feature.
The iOS app allows users to participate in discussions and review lines of code and merge the changes. And some of the same keyboard shortcuts are supported on the mobile app. Next year, GitHub will be launching an Android version of the app.
GitHub VP of engineering Dana Lawson told VentureBeat that the app was the “missing link to the GitHub experience.” With the app, you can also triage and clear notifications along with collaborating on pull requests. And for notifications in the app, you can dismiss or respond to it with swipe gestures. You can sign up for the iOS app (beta) or join the Android beta waiting list at github.com/mobile.
GitHub is also releasing GitHub Actions (workflow automation service) and GitHub Packages out of beta. And GitHub is also improving its code search and adding scheduled reminders. Plus GitHub is also launching a pre-release program that enables users to try out new features before it rolls out to the public.
GitHub also enhanced its GitHub Sponsors platform. GitHub Sponsors allows you to tip individual open-source contributors for their work. Now anyone can help fund a project and the members of the project can decide how to use the money. These project shave to be open-source and must have a corporate or non-profit entity attached to it in order to be eligible.
“Developers are what’s driving us and we’re building the tools and the experiences to help them come together to create the world’s most important technologies and to do it on an open platform and ecosystem,” said GitHub SVP of Product Shanku Niyogi in a statement to TechCrunch.
In terms of the improved notifications, GitHub added some features to make it less overwhelming. For example, there is a new improved system that includes filters. And there is an inbox for all of your notifications in GitHub.
“The experience for developers today can result in an inbox in Gmail or whatever email client you use with tons and tons of notifications — and it can end up being kind of hard to know what matters and what’s just noise,” added GitHub VP of Strategy and Product Management Kelly Stirman. “We’ve done a bunch of things over the last year to make notifications better, but what we’ve done is a big step. We’ve reimagined what notifications should be.”
In the last year, GitHub launched over 150 new features to enhance the developer experience. In an interview with WIRED, GitHub CEO Nat Friedman acknowledged that some of these features were already in development before Microsoft acquired the company such as GitHub Actions.
