Visual Studio Code has recently released version 1.86 in January 2024, with a notable new feature that includes support for voice commands through “Hey Code” to summon Copilot Chat and assist with our work. The sound processing takes place on our own machines and is not sent to external servers. GitHub Copilot Chat, on the other hand, offers a variety of capabilities, such as language translation, code summarization, and explanations in specific code sections.
To use this feature, it is necessary to install the GitHub Copilot Chat extension, VS Code Speech, and configure the accessibility.voice.keywordActivation mode according to our preferences. We can then engage in inline conversations within the editor and open the Chat view separately.
In addition to this, other features in VS Code 1.86 include per-window zoom levels to adjust screen magnification for each window individually, the restoration of floating windows to their original positions when restarting VS Code, sticky scroll in tree views where the header stays fixed while scrolling through the tree, per-language or per-folder configuration for Auto Save, the ability to individually turn off notifications for specific extensions, automatic creation of links in Markdown when pasting URLs into text, and the inclusion of file toggle buttons when comparing two files side by side.
TLDR: Visual Studio Code version 1.86 introduces the new “Hey Code” voice command feature for Copilot Chat, with localized sound processing. GitHub Copilot Chat offers various capabilities, and installation of the necessary extensions and configuration is required. Other features include per-window zoom levels, restoration of floating windows, sticky scroll in tree views, per-language/folder Auto Save configuration, individual extension notification disabling, automatic link creation in Markdown, and file toggle buttons for file comparison.
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