We all know how the Apple ecosystem is tightly integrated to provide users with a seamless experience on their phones and PC. In fact, part of the reason Apple users tend to stick with the ecosystem is because of the helpful cross-platform features. One such feature is the Universal Clipboard, which allows users to easily copy text, images, photos, and videos from one Apple device and paste it onto the other. Well, Microsoft has been working to deliver the same perfect experience with Android phones. The Your Phone app already offers you a ton of functionality, but Microsoft has now added a well-thought-out new feature that allows you to sync your clipboard on Android and Windows PC.
Clipboard Synchronization on Android and Windows PC.
Unlike Apple’s Universal Clipboard feature, you can’t sync pictures and videos on your Android and Windows devices in Microsoft’s implementation, at least not yet. With that out of the way, this is all you need to know to sync your clipboard on your Android phone and Windows 10 or Windows 11 PC.
Requirements to sync the clipboard on Android and Windows
You can seamlessly copy and paste text on your devices if you meet the following three requirements:
- You must use the Microsoft SwiftKey keyboard on your Android phone.
- You have a Windows PC running Windows 10 October 2018 Update or newer. Otherwise, you can follow this guide to install the latest version of Windows 10 via USB. You can also try Windows 11 to test all the new features. Follow the linked guide to learn how to install Windows 11 from a USB drive.
- You need to sign in with a Microsoft accounton your Windows PC and the SwiftKey app.
Step 1: download SwiftKey Beta on your Android phone
Microsoft is currently testing the cloud clipboard feature and you can start using it if you have SwiftKey Beta version 7.8.5.3 or later. We could expect the company to roll out the feature to stable version very soon.
If you want to give it a try right now, download the Microsoft SwiftKey Beta from the Play Store using the link below. I have been using SwiftKey Beta as my main keyboard for months, and have never encountered any application crashes or weird errors.
Download Microsoft SwiftKey Beta from Play Store
Step 2: Enable Cloud Clipboard on SwiftKey for Android
- After installing SwiftKey beta, you should ‘Sign in with Microsoft‘. Once done, you are ready to enable the SwiftKey cloud clipboard.
- From the home screen of the application, tap on ‘Rich Entry’ and choose ‘Clipboard’.
- You will now see a new ‘Synchronize clipboard history’ switch. Enable it and you will be asked to sign in with your Microsoft account again for verification. Please sign in again to continue.
- After enabling the toggle, you can choose to disable the ‘ Show last copied item as quick paste option in predictions bar‘ toggle. Do this if you don’t want to see what you copied from your Windows PC to the SkwiftKey suggestion bar on Android. However, you will see the copied text in the clipboard history.
Step 3: Enable Cloud Clipboard on Windows 10 / Windows 11 PC
Note : I’ve demonstrated this using a Windows 11 PC, but it works on Windows 10 October 2018 Update and newer. While the UI of the Settings app is slightly different, the steps to enable the cloud clipboard in Windows 10 are the same. You can simply follow the instructions below to enable the feature on your Windows PC.
- Now that you have set up SwiftKey on your Android phone, it is time to set up the cloud clipboard on your Windows PC. To do that, open the Settings app and go to ‘System -> Clipboard’. Scroll down the system settings page until you find the Clipboard option.
- In Clipboard Settings, enable the option ‘Synchronize on your devices’to start syncing your clipboard on all devices. In Windows 10, you will see the switch as ‘Synchronize between devices’. As mentioned above, using this feature requires you to log into your PC with your Microsoft account.
Step 4: use cloud clipboard to sync copied text on Android and Windows
Once you’ve set up your Windows PC and Android phone to sync clipboard history, using it is pretty straightforward. You can copy any text from your PC and it will appear on your phone in SwiftKey’s clipboard feature. The opposite also is true. You will see a ‘Copied from another device’ label on the SwiftKey clipboard to identify the text you copied in Windows. Your synced text messages will stay for an hour .
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In my tests, clipboard syncing was almost instantaneous and I was able to copy and paste seamlessly on a Windows 11 laptop and a Pixel 3 XL running Android 12 beta. As long as your internet connection is reliable, you are likely to have a pleasant Microsoft cloud clipboard experience.
Manage cloud clipboard settings for privacy
If the idea of syncing everything you copied from your PC to your phone scares you, you also have the option to sync your clipboard manually. Follow the steps below to enable this nifty feature on both your Windows PC and Android device:
- From the Clipboard settings page on your Windows PC, choose ‘ Manuallysync the text I copy‘ option to sync your clipboard whenever you want. In Windows 10, you will see this option as ‘Never automatically sync the text I copy’.
- To manually sync your clipboard, access the clipboard history panel with the Windows keyboard shortcut ‘Win + V’. Click the horizontal three-dot menu next to the copied text and click the Synchronize button (shown in the image below). Now you can choose when to sync your clipboardinstead of automatically syncing everything you have copied.
- In the SwiftKey app, you have the option to disable syncing from the clipboard history panel. This could be useful in cases where you are typing in sensitive details like passwords (if you are not already using a password manager).
Microsoft SwiftKey Cloud Clipboard – is it safe to use?
If you value your privacy, you must ask yourself if this feature is really safe to use. Well, Microsoft says so. According to the company, your clipboard data is encrypted and not associated with your Microsoft account . The company also promises that SwiftKey does not process or store your data. It’s also worth mentioning that your synced clip will be available for an hour and will disappear after that.
Microsoft SwiftKey Cloud Clipboard Alternative: Clipt
If you’re looking for an alternative to SwiftKey’s cloud clipboard, you can try OnePlus’s Clipt app. In addition to clipboard history, you can also use Clipt to send text, images, and other files between devices. The problem is, you need to use a Google Chrome extension to power the desktop side of things. That means the process won’t be as straightforward as Windows’ built-in clipboard sync option.
If you are interested, you can get the app and extension from the links below and check out our Clipt app coverage for more information.
Download the Clipt application for Android (free) | Download the Clipt Chrome extension (free)
Copy and paste text seamlessly on Windows and Android devices
The SwiftKey Cloud Clipboard is undoubtedly a quality of life improvement for anyone using an Android phone and Windows PC or laptop. We can’t wait to see this feature in the stable version of SwiftKey, but if you want to be an early adopter, we hope this article will help you get started syncing your clipboard history. If you are looking for other powerful clipboard managers for Windows, you can find a good one in our linked article. Also, if you get stuck in any of the steps or have questions about the process explained above, please let us know in the comment section below.
