GitHub Android And iOS Apps Arrive Just In Time

The COVID-19 pandemic has done more than just lock people in their houses. It has also forced many businesses to rethink their workflows and discovering some of it can actually be done online at home. Working remotely, however, has always been one of the staples of those working in the IT industry. Many software developers, in particular, have been able to take their work on their laptops and now GitHub is giving them the ability to do some of that work on their phones, too.

For those who might not know it yet, GitHub, which is now owned by Microsoft, has become one of the world's biggest software source code repository, hosting many of the popular open source projects (and even some proprietary ones) that make the world go round. It is also the platform developers use to collaborate and coordinate their work even when not even in the same office network.

Of course, most software developers and even their project managers will most likely be working on their computers where they have the full power of GitHub in their browser tab. GitHub's mobile apps for Android and iOS, however, let you do some of those most basic project management and team collaboration tasks on your smartphone from anywhere, whether you're in front of your computer or not. GitHub for mobile takes away most excuses, which may actually make some programmers mad.

That said, unless you also have a powerful coding tool on your phone or tablet, you're unlikely to do the actual coding on mobile. The GitHub app at least lets you manage tasks with mobile-friendly swipe gestures and easily respond to comments. You can also review code changes if you're up for that and approve change requests right then and there.

GitHub for mobile was released in a limited beta last November and is now launching for everyone both on Android and iOS. Its timing is almost perfect since working out of the office has become almost a necessity but, perhaps a bit ironically, working from home would mean developers also have their computers in front of them most of the time anyway.