How to copy and paste between Android and Windows with SwiftKey

• Andrew
• 3 years ago

Microsoft has just pushed an update to the SwiftKey beta app, including a pretty nifty feature that is expected to come to the stable version later this year. With the update, you can now sync the contents of your clipboard between your Android phone and Windows computer.

This makes it much easier to move things around if you have a tendency of copying links or other bits of text between your phone and computer. However, this is nothing new, as a similar feature has been available for those who use the Your Phone app. With the Galaxy S20 release, an update to the Your Phone app made it possible to copy and paste clipboard content between devices.

How to set up SwiftKey Clipboard Sync

Once the update arrives on your device, it’s not enabled by default. In order to enable it, make sure that SwiftKey is running version 7.8.5.3, and then follow these steps:

1. Open the SwiftKey app.
2. Tap Rich input.
3. Select Clipboard.
4. Tap the toggle next to Sync clipboard history to the cloud.
5. Sign in with your Microsoft account.

From there, you’ll also need to make sure that your Windows computer can sync between devices. Here’s how to set up your PC to do so:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Click System.
3. Select Clipboard.
4. Tap the toggle next to Clipboard history to the On position.
5. Tap the toggle next to Sync across devices to the On position.

That’s it! Just make sure that you are signed into the same Microsoft account between both devices. From there, you’ll be able to now copy and paste links and text between Android and Windows.

Since you might find yourself copying and pasting from a password manager, you don’t necessarily just want that sitting in your clipboard history. Microsoft thought of this and confirms that any clipboard snippets shared are automatically removed after an hour.

• Download Microsoft SwiftKey Beta

While Gboard remains our favorite keyboard app for Android, SwiftKey is making some pretty great strides. Adding little quality-of-life features like this one can help entice more folks to try out an alternative keyboard.