Visual Studio update brings smoother Copilot integration

With the third preview of the planned Visual Studio 2022 17.10, Microsoft has “unified” the GitHub Copilot experience in the IDE, combining Copilot and Copilot Chat into a single extension.

Introduced April 9, Visual Studio 2022 17.10 Preview 3 combines the features of GitHub Copilot and Copilot Chat into one package, eliminating the need to install two separate extensions and will provide a more integrated AI experience in the future, Microsoft said. Developers can activate a GitHub Copilot subscription at github.com.

GitHub Copilot provides context-aware code completions, suggestions, and even entire code snippets, while GitHub Copilot Chat, available inline, answers the user’s questions about code including documentation, definitions, and error explanations. Copilot Chat also can help write methods, classes, and unit tests by converting prompts into code. And it can apply an optimization feature in Copilot to improve code quality, readability, and security, Microsoft said.

GitHub Copilot offers an interactive experience throughout Visual Studio, through chat in a separate window and directly in code, Microsoft said. For developers using Visual Studio 2022 17.10, GitHub Copilot is included right out of the box as a recommended component. Visual Studio 2022 17.10 is due to be generally available in May.

Visual Studio users can participate in a survey about the Copilot experience on SurveyMonkey or submit feature requests at visualstudio.com.