Microsoft rolls out another way to sync your clipboard between Windows and Android

By Sean Endicott
published

You can now sync your clipboard between Android devices and Windows PCs.

Swiftkey Hero Pink Google Keep
Swiftkey Hero Pink Google Keep (Image credit: Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • Microsoft SwiftKey now supports syncing your clipboard between Android and Windows.
  • The functionality first appeared in beta in August 2021.
  • Enabling the feature requires action on your Android device and your Windows PC.

Microsoft SwiftKey now allows you to sync your clipboard between Android devices and Windows PCs. The functionality has been in beta testing since August 2021 but recently rolled out to the non-preview version of SwiftKey on Android. To sync your clipboard between Android and Windows, you need to sign in to your Microsoft account on both types of devices and enable the feature.

There are other ways to sync your clipboard between Android and Windows, including several third-party apps. Using SwiftKey to sync across Android and Windows may be a bit easier for many. It requires a few steps to set up but is generally straightforward. It's also a natural pairing to have your keyboard from your Android device handle syncing your clipboard.

To sync your clipboard between SwiftKey on Android and Windows, you need to set it up on both types of devices. On your Android device:

  1. Open SwiftKey.
  2. Select Rich Input.
  3. Select clipboard.
  4. Toggle the option to Sync clipboard history.

On your PC:

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Select System.
  3. Select Clipboard.
  4. Toggle the option to enable Clipboard history.
  5. Toggle the option to Sync across devices.

Note that you need to sign in to your Microsoft account to enable the option.

The update with clipboard syncing support started rolling out on October 28, 2021.

SwiftKey New Icon
SwiftKey


The latest version of SwiftKey can sync your clipboard between your Android devices and Windows PCs.

Sean Endicott
Sean Endicott
News Writer and apps editor

Sean Endicott brings nearly a decade of experience covering Microsoft and Windows news to Windows Central. He joined our team in 2017 as an app reviewer and now heads up our day-to-day news coverage. If you have a news tip or an app to review, hit him up at sean.endicott@futurenet.com (opens in new tab).

13 Comments
  • I am not sure about that idea, while it seems useful, I would be worried about where that data goes. Swiftkey is supplied on my phone, but I am not a fan of it, so i changed back to Gboard
  • Worried about fueling the data ambitions of Big Tech... opts for Gboard... Bravo.
  • Ha ha. Indeed.
  • i understand what you are getting at, but all phone keyboards will store some data if you are going to use autocorrection and that sort of thing, the problem with clipboards being in the cloud is that people normally clip a whole sentence and that could give a fair bit away if it gets in the wrong hands
  • i would love for something like this to work seamlessly, but the last method i tried- Logi Flow- did not work properly all the time. would definitely give this a try. if the sync works as intended, it might be reason enough for me to switch over from Gboard to SwiftKey. otherwise, i have no issue with gboard. its perfect.
  • About time considering they announced this like 4 or 5 years ago
  • Actually this has been a working feature on and off for a couple years (I'm guessing A/B testing or something). But by "working" i mean barely. It just refused to sync sometimes. Hopefully now it's robust and straightforward.
  • Yeah it was announced 4-5 years ago but never worked for me. Works great with Your Phone and a Samsung Galaxy though.
  • Ah right, that's what did it for me: a Samsung phone. But I've still had sync issues. And I have a Samsung tablet that doesn't allow Your Phone integration and I can't get anything to work there. So maybe this'll help.
  • You can also do this using Your Phone with a Samsung Galaxy. Works really well. But this opens it up to non-Samsung Android phone.
  • I was using roamit for a long time to sync clipboards, but I recently started using it through SwiftKey and it's working good so far. There was a hiccup in the beginning where I had to log out and log back into SwiftKey on Android but since then it works well
  • I don't see an option, "Sync clipboard history." The closest I see in the Clipboard settings is "Remember copied items," but that's limited to the local device. Is this a feature that's still rolling out and not available to everyone yet? This is on a Surface Duo 2.
  • Awesome thanks, I wanted this!