What is the primary purpose of using branches in Git?

The primary purpose of using branches in Git is to allow simultaneous development without conflicts. Branching enables multiple developers to work on different features or fixes independently without interfering with each other's work. Each branch represents a separate line of development, which facilitates parallel work streams. When changes are made in one branch, they won’t disrupt the main branch or other branches until those changes are explicitly merged.

This feature is particularly useful in collaborative environments, where team members can manage their pieces of work independently, test them, and only integrate them back into the main project when they are ready. This approach aligns with best practices in version control, ensuring a cleaner and more organized development process, minimizing potential conflicts and errors.

The other options present different functionalities of Git but do not capture the primary purpose of branching. While storing files centrally and creating versions of shared history are important aspects of Git, they relate more to the overall version control system rather than the specific benefits provided by branching. Limitations on file access are more about permissions and are not inherently linked to the concept of branches in Git.