SwiftKey for Android is getting support for Cloud Clipboard in beta

The Microsoft SwiftKey beta app has gained the ability to save copied text and sync it to other devices via Cloud Clipboard. That allows copying and pasting between Android devices and Windows PCs.

Cloud Clipboard has been around longer for Windows 10, and can be turned on in the clipboard settings by choosing to sync between Windows 10 devices. The beta of SwiftKey also makes it possible to sync copied text with an Android device.

Users must have version 7.8.5.3 of the SwiftKey beta app to install; which functions independently of the regular SwiftKey app, which also makes it possible to save copied text for later use. Users must be signed in with their Microsoft account in the app and in Windows to use the feature.

Samsung already had a similar feature which allowed users to link their clipboard history to Windows, but the SwiftKey beta is currently the only way to sync clipboard contents directly to Windows on other Android devices. There are several third-party apps that claim to have this feature, but they are not affiliated with Microsoft. The feature is not yet in SwiftKey’s iOS app, and there is no beta app for iOS.

Cloud Clipboard remembers the saved text for one hour and the last copied text is shown as a suggestion in the SwiftKey app in the text bar. The copied clipboard text is encrypted and is not associated with a user’s Microsoft account, writes Windows Latest. In the SwiftKey beta, it is also possible to disable the feature and not to save copied text in the clipboard history.

In 2016, Microsoft acquired keyboard application SwiftKey, which uses artificial intelligence to learn from users’ typing behavior to provide better word predictions than regular keyboard apps. Microsoft said at the time of the acquisition that it would continue to develop the app. SwiftKey was added as a virtual keyboard in a test build of Windows 10 in 2018, but that feature was not carried over to the user version of Windows.