It’s easy to copy-paste content from one Apple device to another using the company’s universal clipboard feature. You simply just highlight an image or a block of text on, say, an iPhone, and then tap on where you want it on your MacBook before clicking paste. Microsoft wanted the same seamless experience between iPhones and Windows PCs, and as MacRumors has discovered, the company asked Apple for it under its EU interoperability request system for developers. Apple launched the request system to comply with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act. 

Microsoft apparently asked Apple back in March for a “mechanism by which an app can be granted persistent access to the device’s clipboard” to transfer content to devices connected to it. Further, the company wanted the “mechanism” not to require for an app to be foregrounded or to require users to repeatedly grant it access every time they want to copy-paste content. 

In its latest note responding to Microsoft’s request dated June 26, Apple promised that it will introduce a new solution that will allow users to easily and directly copy and paste items between an iPhone and a Windows PC. The company said the feature will use its AccessorySetupKit, which also enables third-party smartwatches to receive notifications from iPhones. Users will have to consent to sharing a clipboard with each of their paired accessories just once to be able to access the functionality. 

Apple calls the development of this feature a “significant engineering effort.” The company is hoping to finish working on it by the fall of 2027, before beta testing it in preparation for a wide release in the European Union. The rest of us outside the EU will have to wait and see if Apple will make the functionality available elsewhere.