You Can Make Your iPhone Clipboard Way More Useful

As someone who frequently copies and pastes, I rely on clipboard managers to get work done on my Mac. Quite often, when I copy something, I forget to immediately paste it elsewhere. Without a clipboard manager, that item would be lost forever the instant I copied something else. But thanks to these apps, I can keep track of everything I've copied and retrieve things from my clipboard history easily. I've long wished for something similar on the iPhone, and recently, some clever app developers have finally figured out a great workaround to bring the same features to my pocket.

How always-on iPhone clipboard managers work Credit: Pranay Parab

On the Mac, your clipboard manager will run in the background, storing everything you copy (other than sensitive items such as your passwords, of course). On an iPhone, the same apps can't run the same way because iOS imposes resource limitations on apps in order to improve battery life. When an app leaves the iPhone's foreground, it usually enters a suspended state, and that means iOS clipboard managers historically couldn't be as effective as their Mac counterparts.

Recently, apps have begun using a workaround involving the picture-in-picture (PiP) mode to monitor the clipboard. These apps generate a static video frame that stays running in a floating window. The video does nothing, but it allows the clipboard manager to monitor and store everything you copy. You can move this video to one side to avoid blocking the display, so you'll only see a small arrow on one side of the screen.

Are clipboard manager apps safe? Credit: Pranay Parab

The clipboard is a very sensitive space. Lots of people end up copying credit card information, passwords, bank details, and many other things from various apps there. When you're using a clipboard manager, you're giving it access to a lot of sensitive data. To see if a clipboard manager is trustworthy, you can check if the developer is well-known, see the app's business model, and check its privacy nutrition label on the App Store. As a rule of thumb, you should avoid ad-supported apps for sensitive features such as clipboard management.

Always-on clipboard managers on the iPhone Credit: Pranay Parab

I've found two apps that let you enable always-on clipboard management features. These are Yoink ($6) and PastePal (free download, $15 to unlock all features).

Yoink on Mac ($9) is an app that lets you create a shelf and drop items in it to retrieve later. It's been around for many years and I've recommended it previously, too. The iPhone version of Yoink features a clipboard manager and also a keyboard to quickly paste items you've copied. To use this feature, you can open Yoink on your iPhone and tap the + button in the top-left corner. Then, select Monitor Clipboard and choose how long you want it to keep an eye on your clipboard. Select Monitor Clipboard once more to enable it. As long as the picture-in-picture (PiP) window is open, the clipboard manager will be running. You can close this window anytime to stop Yoink from monitoring your clipboard.

PastePal is a dedicated clipboard manager app on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and even the Apple Vision Pro. The app has a single in-app purchase that unlocks all its features on all platforms. You can try PastePal for free to see if it works as advertised before making your purchase. Open PastePal on your iPhone and go to the Settings tab in the bottom-right corner. Scroll down and enable Background monitor, then tap the PiP button up top, next to the X button, to launch its 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 moment. Once this is set up, you can copy multiple things and all of them will be stored in your clipboard manager. If the app is also syncing your clipboard with its Mac counterpart, then you'll have a nice universal clipboard that works across all your Apple devices (meaning you could copy something on iPhone and access it later from your computer). Although Apple devices have a universal clipboard feature built-in, these clipboard managers should make your iPhone's own clipboard much more powerful, allowing it to better help out your ecosystem overall.