GitHub releases mobile app for iOS and Android

Microsoft-owned GitHub has launched a free app for iOS and Android in order to make organising tasks and communicating with coworkers easier when away from a PC.

The new app lets its users provide feedback, respond to issues via comment, review and merge pull requests, as well as “swipe to finish a task” or save a notification in order to get back to it at a later time.

As an additional perk, it also allows GitHub coders to reply to a comment using an emoji reaction, which undeniably saves time in approving workload and fosters a friendly working relationship between colleagues.

A significant downside to the new app is that it only lets its users view a code yet cannot make any edits to it, which arguably limits its flexibility to coders on the move.

GitHub’s director of engineering, Ryan Nystrom, announced the new app on the company’s blog and thanked its users for the feedback: “Your response to the beta has been incredible—beta testers have commented on, reviewed, and merged nearly one hundred thousand pull requests in the last few weeks alone. And there’s been tens of thousands of team interactions since we first released the beta for download."

The launch comes after the business signed an agreement to acquire widely-used JavaScript platform npm, with parent company Microsoft eventually hoping to integrate the newly bought company into GitHub in the longer-term.

The npm package manager is considered an essential part of the JavaScript ecosystem, as it is home to 1.3 million packages, sustaining 75 billion downloads per month.

At a time when the coronavirus pandemic is forcing more people to work remotely, having tools that can facilitate easier access to code repositories and collaboration might be a boon for developers. And in the longer term, more access to code and developer infomation on the fly, is likely to beneift remote and field worlers.