MacRumors article
Apple Plans iPhone-to-Windows Copy and Paste in EU After Microsoft Request
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/08/03/apple-iphone-windows-copy-paste/
Part of the content was translated by GPT-5.6 and edited.
Apple is developing a new feature that will support cross-device copy and paste between iOS devices and Windows PCs.
Microsoft requested this feature through the EU interoperability request system that Apple set up to comply with the European Digital Markets Act (DMA). Apple began reviewing the request in March and submitted a project plan on June 26th.
Microsoft explained how this feature would be used as follows:
Users could copy text or other supported content from an iPhone and paste it directly into a Windows PC, and vice versa.
It would allow users to perform common productivity tasks without repeatedly having to take separate actions to bring up apps or initiate transfers.
Clipboard synchronization would be a lightweight, continuous feature rather than one that requires manual app manipulation.
Apple proposed a solution where iPhones could share clipboard items with paired Windows PCs as accessories, allowing the accessories to retrieve them. Apple plans to use a similar method to the 'Accessory Alerts' option it added in iOS 26.5 for third-party wearables in the EU region. Users would need to approve permission once to paste content from a paired device onto their iPhone.
Currently, apps must be actively running on the screen and require clipboard access to be granted each time a user copies or pastes in order to read the iPhone's clipboard. Apple already provides a Universal Clipboard feature that supports cross-device copy and paste between iOS and macOS devices.
Microsoft pointed out that due to these clipboard limitations implemented in apps, it is not possible to continuously synchronize iPhone clipboard content to PCs or other connected devices in the background.
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