You Can Make Your IPhone’s Clipboard More Useful
As someone who does a lot of copying and pasting, I rely on clipboard managers to get work done on my Mac. Quite often, when I copy something, I forget to immediately paste it somewhere else. Without a clipboard manager, this item would be lost forever as soon as I copied something else. But thanks to these apps, I can keep track of everything I copied and easily retrieve data from my clipboard history. I’ve been wanting to have something like this on the iPhone for a long time, and recently some smart app developers finally found a great workaround to bring the same functionality into my pocket.
How iPhone always-on clipboard managers work
On a Mac, your clipboard manager will run in the background, saving everything you copy (except sensitive items like your passwords, of course). The same apps can’t perform the same way on iPhone because iOS places resource limits on apps to improve battery life. When an app leaves the iPhone’s foreground, it typically goes into a suspended state, which means iOS clipboard managers historically haven’t been able to be as effective as their Mac counterparts.
Recently, apps have started using a workaround that includes Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mode for clipboard monitoring. These applications generate a static video frame that continues to run in a floating window. Video doesn’t do anything but allow the clipboard manager to track and save whatever you copy. You can move this video to the side so as not to block the display, so you only see the small arrow on one side of the screen.
Are clipboard manager apps safe?
The clipboard is a very sensitive space. Many people end up copying credit card information, passwords, bank details, and more from various apps there. By using a clipboard manager, you give it access to a lot of sensitive data. To ensure that a clipboard manager is trustworthy, you can check whether the developer is known, review the app’s business model, and check its privacy label on the App Store. As a general rule, you should avoid ad-supported apps for sensitive functions such as clipboard management.
Always-on clipboard managers on iPhone
I found two apps that allow you to enable persistent clipboard management features. These are Yoink ($6) and PastePal (free download, $15 to unlock all features).
Yoink for Mac ($9) is an app that lets you create a shelf and place items on it to retrieve later. It’s been around for years, and I’ve recommended it before . The iPhone version of Yoink includes a clipboard manager, as well as a keyboard for quickly pasting copied items. To use this feature, you can open Yoink on your iPhone and click the + button in the top left corner. Then select “Monitor Clipboard” and choose how long you want it to monitor your clipboard. Select “Clipboard Monitor” again to turn it on. While the picture-in-picture (PiP) window is open, the clipboard manager works. You can close this window at any time to prevent Yoink from monitoring your clipboard.
PastePal is a special application for managing the clipboard on iPhone, iPad, Mac and even Apple Vision Pro. The app has a single in-app purchase that unlocks all of its features across all platforms. You can try PastePal for free and see if it works as advertised before you make a purchase. Open PastePal on your iPhone and go to the Settings tab in the bottom right corner. Scroll down and turn on Background Monitor, then click the PiP button at the top next to the X button to launch the clipboard manager.
You can only use one clipboard manager at a time since iOS only allows you to have one PiP window running at any given time. Once this is set up, you will be able to copy multiple objects and they will all be stored in your clipboard manager. If the app also syncs your clipboard with its Mac counterpart, then you’ll have a nice universal clipboard that works across all your Apple devices (meaning you can copy something to your iPhone and access it later from your computer). While Apple devices have a built-inuniversal clipboard feature , these clipboard managers should make your iPhone’s native clipboard much more powerful, allowing it to better help your ecosystem as a whole.