If you use the copy-and-paste function on your phone, whether it’s a budget Android phone, a flagship Samsung phone, or an iPhone, you’ve likely seen the clipboard option and experienced its functionality. In this article, we explore how to access this tech on any device you own and view your clipboard history.
How to locate and use the clipboard on your Android phone or tablet
The clipboard temporarily holds information you copied from a document or web page, which you can paste elsewhere. On Android phones, like the Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy, you can access the clipboard feature through Gboard. Here’s what you’ll do:
- Copy a string of text or a link you would like to view on your clipboard.
- Install the Gboard keyboard app from the Play Store if it isn’t pre-installed on your device.
- Set it as the default keyboard.
- Navigate to your home screen and open an app that supports text input.
- Tap the text box or text field to view the Gboard keyboard.
- Select the Gboard clipboard icon.
You can now view, pin, delete, or edit the copied text. To edit a clip, select the Edit icon. To delete a clip, hold the clip for a couple of seconds and select Delete from the drop-down menu. To pin a clip, hold the clip for a couple of seconds and select Pin from the drop-down menu. Unpinned clips or copied items are available for one hour.
You can also download third-party clipboard manager apps, like Clipper, from the Google Play Store to access clipboard-related features and better manage your clips.
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How to locate and use your iPhone’s clipboard
iOS devices, like iPhones and iPads, don’t have a visible clipboard like Android phones. However, you can use the copy-and-paste feature to move text or links between your apps. Here’s what you’ll do to use the clipboard function on your iPhone:
- Select a string of text or a link and hold until a pop-up menu appears.
- Select Copy from the options.
- Navigate to the app where you want to paste the copied text.
- Press and hold the text field where you wish to enter the copied content.
- Select Paste from the pop-up menu to make the content available in the text field.
If no content appears, you don’t have copied clipboard content. The Apple clipboard, unlike the Android clipboard, can only save one thing at a time. Each time you select Copy, any content you previously copied disappears. Also, unlike Android devices, iPhones don’t have the option to view your clipboard history. However, downloading a third-party app can help you access this history.
Your Chromebook has a superpowered clipboard
Just as you can access the clipboard function on your smartphone to copy and paste content, you can also copy and paste text, links, and photos on most laptops. If you own a Chromebook, you can access the built-in clipboard manager to copy multiple items, access the history, and paste any copied content as and when you need to.
