[milohax]

GitLab Support team member here.

As a work-around, if you know the name of the existing branch you want to switch to, you can change the URL in your browser's location bar for the IDE. Here's the URL format:

    https://gitlab.com/-/ide/project/<namespace>/[<subgroup>/...]<project>/edit/<branch>/-/

This will re-load the IDE on the different branch.

You can also switch branches in the GitLab UI's Files view, before launching the Web IDE with the "Web IDE" button (or the `.` shortcut).

Also pressing "Web IDE" from an MR in GitLab will open that MR's branch in the Web IDE.

So it depends upon your workflow currently, but I agree it will be nice to be able to swap within the IDE itself later (also when the GitLab Flow extension is added).

The built-in git support in Code is already an improvement over the old Web IDE's Stage/Commit workflow, IMHO, and after the first load, the new Web IDE also loads faster than the old one, for me at least.