Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
Android has a built-in clipboard that makes copying and pasting text or images in your favorite apps easy, but its contents aren’t automatically synced across your devices. This means that transferring copied content between Android devices currently requires a third-party tool. Fortunately, that could change in next year’s Android 17 update, as we’ve spotted evidence that Google is working on a ‘Universal Clipboard’ feature. You’re reading the Authority Insights Newsletter, a weekly newsletter that reveals some new facet of Android that hasn’t been reported on anywhere else. If you’re looking for the latest scoops, the hottest leaks, and breaking news on Google’s Android operating system and other mobile tech topics, then we’ve got you covered.
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How does Android’s clipboard work? Although most users interact with Android’s clipboard through keyboard apps like Gboard, the clipboard is actually a system service. Any app can access it via Android’s ClipboardManager API, but Google has tightened security over time. Android 10 introduced restrictions ensuring only the default keyboard or the app currently in focus can read the clipboard. Android 13 went further, automatically clearing clipboard history after an hour and alerting you whenever an app accesses it. These measures are crucial for user safety, given how often people copy sensitive data like passwords and addresses.
These background restrictions explain why syncing the clipboard between a Pixel and a Windows PC requires setting SwiftKey as your default keyboard. Because Microsoft owns SwiftKey, it can build clipboard syncing directly into the keyboard app itself. Some other Android phones can sync their clipboards with Windows PCs even without SwiftKey, but only because they include a preinstalled system utility. This utility leverages a system-only permission to bypass background restrictions, feeding clipboard data to Microsoft’s Phone Link app to stream it to your PC.
Google could implement a similar solution to sync clipboards between Android phones and Chromebooks, likely via Play Services. It is unclear why it hasn’t done so yet, but with the company’s focus shifting toward “Android PCs,” cross-device features seem to be a renewed priority. We’ve already seen evidence that Google is working on an Android version of Apple’s Handoff. However, Apple’s implementation does more than just let you pick up apps where you left off; it also includes Universal Clipboard, allowing you to copy text or media on one device and paste it instantly onto another.
To achieve parity with Apple’s Handoff, Google is developing its own version of Universal Clipboard for Android. The company is currently using that exact name internally, though it remains unclear if the final marketing name will change. While we can’t confirm every detail, the evidence we have allows us to make some educated guesses about how it functions.
In the latest Android beta and canary releases, Google added a new UniversalClipboardManager class under the android.companion.datatransfer.continuity path, where other in-development Handoff features reside. This class defines a new system service of the same name, though it doesn’t yet contain the full implementation. We expect Google Play Services will eventually expose an option to sync the clipboard within the Handoff settings for linked Android devices.
AssembleDebug / Android Authority
The current options in the in-development “Handoff” menu in Google Play Services.
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