SwiftKey finally brings Apple-style Universal Clipboard to Windows and Android

By Prakhar Khanna November 3, 2021

One of the most useful features of the Apple ecosystem is finally coming to Windows and Android. Apple offers a Universal Clipboard across its devices, letting you copy something on your iPhone and paste it on your MacBook, iPad, or other compatible devices. A similar feature is now being rolled out to Windows and Android via Microsoft SwiftKey.

The feature was first spotted by MSPoweruser. Microsoft SwiftKey’s latest update (7.9.0.5) brings the ability to cloud-sync your clipboard across Windows and Android. The company is calling it Cloud Clipboard. It is now available for Android, but there is no word on iOS availability yet. The minimum requirement for a PC to have Cloud Clipboard is it should run Windows 10 (October 2018 update or later).

To use Cloud Clipboard on Microsoft SwiftKey, you need to go to Rich input > Clipboard > Sync clipboard history to the cloud. On the PC side, you need to enable it by going to Settings > System > Clipboard > Clipboard history toggle on > turning on Sync across devices. The latest feature will only keep a clip for one hour. The last copied clip will also be displayed on the SwiftKey toolbar.

The Cloud Keyboard feature for SwiftKey requires a Microsoft account. You will be asked to log in or create a Microsoft Outlook.com or Hotmail.com account. To access the feature, you need to have version 7.9.0.5 of SwiftKey installed on your Android phone. Once installed, you will be able to copy text from your Android phone or tablet clipboard and paste it on your Windows PC. It’s important to note that SwiftKey must be set as the primary keyboard on Android in order for all this to work correctly.

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