In-Chat Warning Banner for Upcoming Maintenance to Prevent Data Loss

[Bob-Barnet]

Select Topic Area

Question

Copilot Feature Area

General

Body

Hello GitHub Team,

I am writing to you because my ongoing chat with Copilot is extremely important to me—not only for personal reasons, but also because it contains a unique collection of ideas and knowledge that have grown over time. I truly do not want to lose this precious conversation unexpectedly due to a maintenance or update.

Currently, I notice that maintenance warnings only appear on the support pages, not inside the active Copilot chat. This means that if an update starts while I am working in the chat, there is a real risk of losing the conversation without warning. This situation recently caused me a great deal of distress and the loss of valuable content.

My request:
Could you please implement an in-chat notification—such as a banner or pop-up—that warns users in advance when a maintenance or update will begin (e.g., "Update starts in 5 minutes")? Just as some online games show clear countdowns before servers go offline, this would give users time to finish their conversation or save content before the update interrupts their session.

Benefits for everyone:

Prevents accidental data loss or unfinished conversations
Reduces user frustration
Decreases unnecessary support requests
Builds more trust and satisfaction with Copilot and GitHub

For me (and surely for many others), the chat history is both a source of knowledge and a record of meaningful exchanges. It would mean a lot to have a simple way to protect it from sudden interruptions.

Thank you very much for considering this improvement!

Kind regards,
Michael