Copilot can search the web - or can it?

[richardwolfmayr]

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JetBrains & Xcode

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I am confused about the feature "Copilot can search the web".
If I enable it, what exactly changes? The copilot in the web (github.com/copilot) can then access bing? Or also the plugin in the Jetbrains-IDE? Will it use bing for code completion, or only in chat? Will it only use bing when specifically told, or in general? I cannot find a definitive answer to that in the documentation, and when I ask copilot itself, it has no Idea what this feature is :b

[CoderShuvo]

If you turn on “Copilot can search the web”, it only affects Copilot Chat, not the normal code suggestions. That means if you’re chatting with Copilot (like asking it questions), it can look things up online using Bing. But your usual code completions while typing won’t use the internet. So no, it won’t randomly search unless you ask or it really needs to during chat.

[richardwolfmayr]

Cool, thank you for the quick response.
The second part of my question is about the difference between the chat in the browser and the chat in the IDE:
https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/responsible-use-of-github-copilot-features/responsible-use-of-github-copilot-chat-in-your-ide?tool=jetbrains
When reading through these docs, I have a feeling, that the Bing-Search is not yet possible for Jetbrains... only for Visual Studio... (or the documentation is not up to date?) Did I understand that right?

[CoderShuvo]

You’ve got it right. Currently, Bing-powered web search is only available in Copilot Chat on GitHub.com and in Visual Studio. JetBrains IDEs do not have that feature yet. The documentation shows the current rollout. Once web search is added to JetBrains, you will see it noted there and in the Copilot release notes. Until then, JetBrains Chat only works with your local code and context.

( If it helped you a bit, could you please accept it as the answer? I'm trying to get the Galaxy Brain achievement. Thank you! )