GitHub announced a few new products today, as well as the availability of a number of tools. The two announcements that are likely to interest developers the most are the launch of GitHub's first native mobile app and an improved notification experience. GitHub is also improving code search, adding scheduled reminders and launching a pre-release program that will allow users to test new features before they're ready for wider deployment.
GitHub is also expanding its sponsor program, which previously allowed you to consult with individual open source contributors about their work. With GitHub Sponsors, anyone can help fund a project, and its members can choose how the money is used. These projects must be open source and linked to a corporate or non-profit entity (and a bank account).
The new mobile app, which is now in beta for iOS, with Android support coming soon, offers all the basic functionality you would want from such a mobile app. The team decided to focus exclusively on mobile use cases that would make sense for a developer on the go.
The second most important new feature is the improved notification experience. As any GitHub user, even on a mid-level team, knows, the GitHub notification set can be overwhelming. That’s why the GitHub team decided to build a vastly improved system that includes filters, as well as an inbox for all your notifications from within GitHub.
Using filters and rules, developers can zero in on the notifications they care about. “A lot of times, the notification will be sent to you when you’re not at your computer, when you’re not at your desktop,” Stirman notes. “And that notification could be someone asking for your help unblocking something. And so it’s natural, we think, to extend the GitHub experience beyond the desktop to a mobile experience.”
GitHub also announced a new feature in limited preview that adds a few more notifications to your inbox. You can now set up scheduled reminders for pending code reviews.
The improved code search stands out because this is definitely an area where some improvements are needed. This new code search is currently in limited beta, but will be rolling out to all users in the coming months.
