Here's how you can finally copy and paste between Android and Windows

Phone and laptop
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Copying and pasting data between Android and Windows 10 devices is no longer a pipe dream thanks to a new Microsoft Swiftkey update.

The Cloud Clipboard boost means that users with Swiftkey on their Android devices will now be able to duplicate text typed on their smartphone directly onto their Windows PC, and vice versa.

The tool was first announced by Microsoft in a Swiftkey beta release back in August 2021, but now according to MSPowerUser has gone live for users as part of Swiftkey 7.9.0.5.

Copy and paste Android to Windows

"The days of emailing yourself website links, phone numbers and addresses are a thing of the past," a Microsoft Swiftkey support page noted

"You can now use Microsoft SwiftKey’s Cloud Clipboard feature to sync your copied text between SwiftKey Keyboard and Windows."

Microsoft says that your Cloud Clipboard will only ever retain your last copied clip, which will be available for an hour. This last copied clip will be shown on your prediction bar as a quick paste option by default - although this can be turned off, and replaced with your last copied clip from another device. 

To use the tool, you'll need a PC running Windows 10, and an active Microsoft Outlook or Hotmail account - with the company noting that users will not be able to use a Microsoft work email account, Google, or other email addresses. 

Once you have Swiftkey running (it can be downloaded via the Google Play Store), the new function needs to be activated via Settings > Rich input > Clipboard. Here, the “Sync clipboard history” option will need to be toggled on.

After signing in with your Microsoft Account, on your Windows 10 PC, you'll need to navigate to Settings > System > Clipboard, where you'll need to turn on both the ‘Clipboard history’ toggle and the ‘Sync across devices’ toggle.  

Although SwiftKey is available for iOS, cloud clipboard support is not yet included. Likewise, users will not be able to use SwiftKey to copy information over to devices running on macOS or Linux PCs.

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Mike Moore
Deputy Editor, TechRadar Pro

Mike Moore is Deputy Editor at TechRadar Pro. He has worked as a B2B and B2C tech journalist for nearly a decade, including at one of the UK's leading national newspapers and fellow Future title ITProPortal, and when he's not keeping track of all the latest enterprise and workplace trends, can most likely be found watching, following or taking part in some kind of sport.