How to copy text between Android phone and Windows PC? Step-by-step guide

Regarding personal gadgets, several people have an Android phone as a daily driver, and a Windows computer, either a laptop or a desktop, to carry out office tasks. If you are a part of this hybrid Android-Windows ecosystem, you often need to transfer items between your smartphone and the Windows computer. That said, I will discuss how you can copy and paste elements between your Android smartphone and Windows computer to simplify your workflow. 

Say, for example, you came across a great article while surfing the web, and you want the link to that article on your PC. What you need to do is, copy the link on your smartphone, and paste the link on your browser’s address bar to get to the link and read the article. The reverse of it is also possible, through which you can copy something on your PC, and then paste it onto your Android smartphone.

So, without any further delay, let’s get started with the step-by-step guide on how you can copy and paste text between your Android phone and Windows PC.

The setup process on Windows PC

On your Windows computer, go to ‘Settings’, either from the Start menu, or use the ‘Windows + I’ shortcut key to open Settings.

Under System settings, where you should land by default, scroll down and click on ‘Clipboard’. Refer to the screenshot below to understand better.

In the Clipboard menu, enable ‘Clipboard history’, and ‘Sync across your devices’.

While enabling the second option, make sure, ‘Automatically sync text that I copy’ is selected among the two available options.

The setup process on Android

Now that you have set things up on your PC, here are the necessary tasks you should do to copy text between Android and Windows.

Download Microsoft SwiftKey Keyboard from the Google Play Store on your Android.

Go through the setup process which is pretty easy. You will have to log in with your Microsoft account for this feature to work.

Once Microsoft SwiftKey is ready, open the app from the app drawer.

In the app menu, tap on ‘Rich input’.

Once in the Rich input menu, tap on ‘Clipboard’.

In the Clipboard menu, enable the first two options, i.e. ‘Remember copied items’, and ‘Sync clipboard history’.

One thing that you should make sure of is that you are logged in on your Windows computer and Microsoft SwiftKey, with the same Microsoft account.

Open Microsoft SwiftKey on your Android, and on your Windows computer open Settings. In both cases, you will find the registered Microsoft accounts.

Make sure that the Microsoft accounts are the same.

Copying text between Android and Windows (finally)

Once you are done with all the initial settings, copy some text on your Android, and you can use the ‘Ctrl + V’ shortcut key or use the ‘Paste’ function to paste the item copied on your Android.

While if you copy something on your PC, you will get the option to paste the same on your Android in the suggestion strip on SwiftKey Keyboard, as shown in the screenshot below.

The only limitation of this method is that you have to use the Microsoft SwiftKey Keyboard on your Android for this cross-platform clipboard sync functionality to work. While there are some great features in Microsoft SwiftKey Keyboard, if you are making your switch to this app, you will miss the features you used to get on Gboard or any other keyboard app you used to use earlier.

So, that’s all about how to copy text between an Android smartphone and Windows PC. Do you have any questions regarding this topic? Feel free to comment on the same below.