GitHub Copilot in Microsoft Teams: What to Update Before November 16

GitHub has merged its two Microsoft Teams apps into one. According to GitHub's changelog of October 23, 2026, the app that delivers GitHub notifications now also carries Copilot, so you can reply to an issue notification and hand the work to Copilot in the same thread. If your team reaches GitHub Copilot in Microsoft Teams through the older, separate Copilot app, that app retires on November 16, 2026. This guide covers which app to update or install, what license and admin settings Copilot needs, and how the notification-to-pull-request flow works while a person still decides what merges.

What changed on October 23

In GitHub's framing, one Teams app now handles both notifications and Copilot, so a team can go from an issue to a fix without switching out of the chat where the issue landed.

The app names are the confusing part, so here is the history. In September 2025, GitHub launched a separate Copilot app called GitHub in public preview and renamed its older Teams app GitHub Notifications. The October 2026 changelog reverses that split. The notifications app, which GitHub says was "previously called GitHub notifications", is now the consolidated GitHub app. The 2025 Copilot app will be renamed "GitHub (deprecated)" and retired on November 16.

Microsoft announced the same consolidation to tenant admins in Microsoft 365 Message Center notice MC1515929, published October 19, 2026 (the admin center original is not public; I am citing the copy on mc.merill.net). Microsoft says it will begin rolling out in mid-October 2026 and expects to complete by mid-November 2026, so the updated app may reach your tenant later than the changelog date.

One status note. Microsoft's notice files the rollout under "General Availability (Worldwide)", but GitHub's documentation for Copilot in Teams still says: "This feature is currently in public preview and subject to change." My read is that Microsoft's label describes the rollout, and the Copilot feature itself remains a GitHub preview. Plan for it to change.

Microsoft owns GitHub, so the notice is not independent confirmation. Everything below comes from GitHub and Microsoft documentation, and I have not tested the workflow myself.

Which app to update or install

Use the install link in the changelog, which opens the GitHub app in Microsoft Teams (app ID ca9e26b7). GitHub's Teams integration doc points to the same app.

What Copilot needs: license, sandboxes and cost

The GitHub Community post that accompanies the changelog separates the two halves of the app. Notifications work without a Copilot license. Copilot itself requires a paid GitHub Copilot plan with cloud sandboxes turned on, and the post notes that an organization or enterprise administrator may first have to enable Copilot cloud agent and cloud sandboxes. GitHub's docs list the same two prerequisites, and Microsoft's notice says Copilot capabilities go to users with an eligible GitHub Copilot license.

On plans, the sources differ slightly. GitHub's September 25 update for Slack and Teams said that preview was available to organizations on Copilot Business and Copilot Enterprise. The current docs and the October post both say a paid GitHub Copilot plan without naming tiers. I treat the newer wording as current. If you are on an individual plan, confirm Copilot responds in a test chat before you announce the feature to your team.

The October changelog does not mention plans, licenses or credits. Earlier GitHub posts do. The August 21 changelog says cloud agent sessions started in Teams consume AI credits, and the September update says usage counts against your existing Copilot entitlements and can be managed with existing Copilot cloud agent budgets. The August changelog also separates two charges: for organizations, cloud agent AI credit usage falls under usage-based billing budgets, while cloud sandbox usage is billed separately and can be capped with its own product-level or SKU-level budget. Once channels that receive GitHub notifications can turn a reply into a Copilot session, check both budgets, the AI credit one and the sandbox one, before the habit spreads.

For Teams and Microsoft 365 admins

• App access policies. Microsoft's notice asks admins to review the organization's Teams app access policies so the new GitHub app is available.
• Resource-specific consent (RSC). RSC lets an app request permissions scoped to a specific team or chat. Microsoft says organizations that restrict RSC should configure the team and chat consent policies to allow the GitHub app's required RSC permissions, so Copilot can use chat and thread history as context.
• Install permission. GitHub's integration doc lists a Teams workspace where you have permission to install apps.
• GitHub side. Enable Copilot cloud agent and cloud sandboxes for the organization or enterprise if they are off.

From notification to pull request

The changelog says notifications arrive in channels, group chats or private chats. Microsoft's August Teams blog post lists channels, group chats, meeting chats and 1:1 chats as places Copilot works. GitHub describes the flow like this:

1. Reply to the notification. When an issue or pull request update needs action, reply to that notification and mention @GitHub with the task. According to the community post, Copilot uses the linked issue or pull request and the thread conversation as context.
2. Point it at a repository and branch if needed. GitHub's docs give the syntax @GitHub Create a pull request to...YOUR_PROMPT repo=OWNER/REPO_NAME branch=BRANCH_NAME.
3. Copilot works the task. In the changelog's words, "@github investigates the issue, fixes the bug, and creates a pull request."
4. People review and ship. The community post says your team reviews the proposed changes, iterates with Copilot, runs tests and decides whether to merge.

An illustrative reply (my example, not a tested output) might read: @GitHub Fix the bug described in this issue and add a regression test repo=OWNER/REPO_NAME branch=main. GitHub says the same workflow covers features, test coverage and documentation updates. Type @GitHub settings to see and change channel settings, and @GitHub help for the other commands.

Guardrails that still apply

Consolidation puts a "make the change" action next to GitHub notifications, so it is worth knowing where GitHub draws the lines:

• GitHub's docs say only users with write access to a repository can trigger Copilot to make changes, although anyone in the conversation can add input. Guests and outside collaborators cannot start or steer a session.
• Pull requests Copilot creates in a shared context use the app's identity, not a person's.
• GitHub's August changelog introduced an extra approval for pull requests attributed to the Teams Copilot integration identity. The current docs describe it as on by default: in repositories that use rulesets, these pull requests need one more approval before merging, provided the repository already requires at least one approval.
• Microsoft's Teams blog says Copilot in Teams works within existing GitHub permissions and repository policies, and branch protections and required reviews continue to apply.
• GitHub's docs say thread context is stored in the artifacts the agent generates. Keep secrets and customer data out of threads where you invoke Copilot.

Because shared-context pull requests carry the app's identity rather than a person's, the extra approval matters. Do not assume it is off, and do not assume it covers every repository: the docs tie it to rulesets that already require at least one approval. I recommend checking the effective ruleset on each repository where Teams users have write access and confirming that an approval requirement is in place. The agent permissions playbook and the OWASP Top 10 for agentic apps cover the broader case for limiting what an agent can push.

What I recommend before November 16

If your team uses GitHub notifications alone, update the app; Copilot stays off for anyone without a paid plan. If anyone uses the 2025 Copilot app, list the channels and chats where it was added, install the consolidated app, add it to those same conversations and remove the old one before November 16, 2026. Admins should clear the Teams app access and RSC policies first, enable cloud agent and sandboxes on the GitHub side, set two budgets (one for cloud agent AI credits, one for separately billed cloud sandbox usage), and check each repository's effective ruleset so the default extra approval for integration pull requests actually applies. For what Copilot offers outside Teams, see the GitHub Copilot tool page.