GitHub Copilot app opens preview with canvases and CLI voice mode

• pierceboggan's launch post sent the new GitHub Copilot app into preview as a desktop control center for agent runs, and the preview changelog says it is open to existing Copilot Pro, Pro+, Business, and Enterprise customers on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
• According to the launch blog post and lukehoban resharing Techmeme, the headline app feature is canvases, shared work surfaces where agents can update plans, PRs, terminals, deployments, and other live state while humans edit and approve on the same surface.
• lukehoban on continuity says work can move between local and cloud execution and stay visible across CLI, mobile, and web, with mobile notifications and remote control for checking or continuing sessions.
• lukehoban resharing the CLI changelog and the Copilot CLI changelog paired the desktop app with a refreshed terminal client: voice input, prompt scheduling, rubber ducking, and an experimental tabbed TUI for issues, PRs, and gists.

You can read the full launch post, skim the CLI refresh notes, and compare the official app to TestingCatalog's prelaunch screenshots, which had already surfaced Code and Cowork tabs inside a broader Microsoft Copilot shell.

GitHub is pitching the app as a single My Work view for long-running agent sessions, issues, PRs, and background automations, not another chat window.

The launch blog post says sessions can start from an issue, a pull request, a prompt, or a prior session across connected repositories. The companion preview changelog adds the practical part: preview access now covers paid Copilot tiers, while Free users and non-subscribers are on a waitlist.

Canvases are the most specific product idea in the launch. GitHub describes them as bidirectional surfaces where agents keep work visible while a developer edits, reorders, approves, or redirects it.

In the official post, a canvas can hold a plan, browser session, terminal, deployment, dashboard, or workflow state. The camera-gesture demo in pierceboggan resharing a custom canvas demo makes the point fast: GitHub wants canvases to be programmable UI, not just transcript panes.

The app's other big bet is that the same task should survive surface switches.

Hoban's thread says a run that starts in the app can execute locally or in the cloud, then stay viewable and controllable from CLI, mobile, or web. The preview changelog also notes voice conversations use on-device speech-to-text and that copilot --cloud, now folded into the app UX, is part of that same cross-surface story.

GitHub shipped the desktop app next to a meaningfully fatter CLI.

The CLI changelog says voice input, rubber duck, and prompt scheduling are generally available now. The experimental layer adds a redesigned terminal UI with tabs for session view, issues, pull requests, and gists, while the GitHub releases page adds concrete commands: /voice for local speech-to-text, plus /every and /after for scheduled prompts under /experimental.

GitHub also used Build to push Copilot further into unattended repo work.

The separate cloud agent automation changelog says agents can now run on schedules or repository events for chores like issue triage, nightly test fixes, and release-note drafting. That turns the desktop app's My Work screen into a queue for both live sessions and jobs that started without a human sitting there.

Two days before launch, leaks around Microsoft's broader Copilot redesign had already framed GitHub's coding surface as one tab inside a larger shell.

TestingCatalog's prelaunch report described Code and Cowork tabs plus an always-on Scout agent inside a unified Microsoft Copilot app, and WesRoth on the super app echoed that read. GitHub's shipped app does not mention Cowork or Scout, but the leak helps explain why the desktop client feels more like a dedicated developer home than a standalone experiment.