How to copy and paste on iPhone and iPad

Copy and paste tips for iPhone and iPad: Efficiently improve productivity

Copying and pasting seems simple, but it contains huge potential for productivity improvement. This article will dive into how to copy and paste on iPhone and iPad, and how to copy and paste efficiently between iPhone, iPad and Mac.

Copy, cut and paste text on iPhone and iPad

First, let’s look at the copy and paste of the text. Although it is easy to operate, there are some tips you may have never heard of.

Use the Paste app to manage clipboard history and save all copied content across devices.

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Here are the ways to copy text on your iPhone or iPad:

1. Press and hold the text you want to copy.
2. Select Select.
3. Drag the marquee to adjust the range of copied text.
4. Click Copy or Cut (if you want to learn how to cut and paste on your iPhone).

Tips: Double-click on a single finger to select a word; triple-click on a single finger to select a paragraph of text.

Paste text is just as simple: Long press any empty text area and select Paste. The text will be inserted immediately.

Another way to copy and paste on iPhone/iPad is to use pinch gestures (iOS 13 or later only):

• Three-finger pinch: copy text
• Three fingers pinch twice: Cut text
• Three fingers open: paste text

It is recommended to use Paste application-assisted copy and paste. Paste is a clipboard manager app for macOS and iOS (requires a Setapp subscription) that saves all content copied across devices in one convenient location. For example, if you copied some text and then forgot to paste and copy something else, the previously copied text will disappear from the clipboard, but Paste won't! It will remember everything you copied: text, links, or images, and you can even organize it by dedicated panels.

Copy and paste web page link

Copying a URL on an iOS device is as easy as copying text. Press or pinch the link with three fingers and paste it at any time. However, it is a little bit more complicated if you want to copy the link from the hyperlink text without opening it first.

Here is how to copy a link from the hyperlink text on your iPhone:

1. Press and hold the hyperlink text long.
2. Select Copy Link (if there is no copy option, click Share, and then click Copy in the share menu).

Now you can paste your link like you would any text. If you use Paste, the app will automatically save all links you copied to the clipboard.

Tips: Open a link on your Mac? Install OpenInto and always open the link in the correct browser. OpenIn lets you choose which browser to open which links, and also set it as the default browser so that every time you click on a link, you will see a selector that lets you choose a browser—Chrome, Safari, or other browsers.

How to copy and paste images and photos on iPhone

Next is the image. You can copy and paste images between applications on iOS and macOS devices, which are almost as flexible as on your Mac. The Paste app will also save the images you copied!

On your iPhone or iPad, you can copy directly from the Photo Library (open a photo, long press the image in the library and click "Copy"), or open the image and copy it through the Share menu (click the Share icon > Copy Photo).

Then, paste your iPhone image into any other app (such as memos or instant messaging software you like) – just long press and hold the blank area and select Paste.

Note: Do not try to long press the image after opening it. Since Apple introduced real-time text, long pressing will prompt OCR. So, what you copy is not the image, but the text in the image.

Tips: Is there insufficient storage space for iPhone? You can use CleanMy®Phone to clean up photos immediately and free up some GB of space, deleting photos and video duplicates. CleanMy®Phone can be sorted by size so that you can delete the largest media files first.

How to copy videos on iPhone

While videos are in the same app as photos on your iPhone (Photo app), the way you copy and paste videos is as intuitive as you copy and paste photos. However, you may find that there is no "Copy Video" option in the share menu. So what can you do? You can send the video directly to the app you want to paste, such as a memo:

1. Open your video in the photo.
2. Click on the share icon.
3. Select the memo and select the memo you want to paste the video.

If you use Google Photos on your iPhone or iPad, there is a more familiar "Copy" option:

1. Open your video in Google Photos.
2. Click the share icon > Share to.
3. Click Copy.

The advantage of this approach is that you have more flexibility in your iPhone paste—for example, you can select exactly where you insert videos into your memos.

How to copy and paste between iPhone and iPad, and reverse

With the universal clipboard feature, your iPhone clipboard can be expanded to a wider range. This means you can copy on one device and then paste on another, which again proves Apple’s commitment to connecting its ecosystem so that you can work more efficiently between your devices.

As long as your device meets continuity requirements (run iOS 10 or later and macOS Sierra or later), you can rely on the Universal Clipboard.

Here are some things you should do so you can copy and paste between devices:

• Check if you are logged in with the same Apple ID on all devices.
• Enable Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Relay on every iOS device.
• Enable Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and relay on your Mac (if necessary).
• Make sure your devices are within each other's Bluetooth range.

Here is how to copy and paste between iPhone and iPad:

1. Copy text, links, or anything on your iPhone.
2. The copied items are automatically saved to the clipboard, and you just need to paste anywhere on your iPad, just like you normally would.

Note: The content you copied will not remain in the clipboard forever - it will be deleted after a while or replaced by the item you copied next. If you want more control over the clipboard history on any device, it is best to use the Paste app.

How to copy and paste between iPhone and Mac

The universal clipboard also allows pasting between iPhone and Mac. The process is exactly the same: make sure your devices are compatible, bring them close to each other, and then copy them on your iPhone and paste them on your Mac using your favorite technology. It is best to paste the project immediately after you copy it to make sure it is still in the clipboard.

Paste for Mac does a great job of managing clipboard content on your Mac. Save everything you copied, create panels and use them to organize your previously copied projects, or use Paste as a bookmarking tool!

How to copy and paste emojis on iPhone

When the text is not enough to express, it is the turn of emoji! iOS devices offer quite powerful support for emojis, so you can usually copy and paste iPhone emojis like copy and paste text.

Of course, there may be exceptions. When you copy some text that contains emojis, the emojis are also copied. Then, depending on the application you want to paste the text, some emojis may not be recognized. However, this happens rarely.

You can also copy a single emoji or emoji combination without any text: long press the emoji and select Copy. Then, long press and hold the empty text area and select Paste.

Create a seamless iPhone copy and paste process

To improve your iPhone copy and paste process, we recommend the following three enhancements:

• Paste – Used to manage clipboard history across devices and never lose anything you copy.
• CleanMy®Phone - Used to delete duplicates of photos and videos and clean up storage on iOS devices.
• OpenIn – Settings links always open in the correct browser on your Mac.

Setapp allows you to try these three apps for 7 days for free, so you can try them out and see if they can be easier to copy and paste on your iPhone. Spoiler: They do!

Now you can start. Learn how to copy and paste on your iPhone and iPad, and how to copy and paste between devices using the Universal Clipboard and Paste app, you can significantly increase your productivity.

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