Apple Working on Copy-Paste Feature for the EU
The feature is expected to be ready by autumn 2027, allowing users in Croatia and the rest of the European Union to easily transfer content between Apple phones and Windows computers.
The feature is expected to be ready by autumn 2027, allowing users in Croatia and the rest of the European Union to easily transfer content between Apple phones and Windows computers.
Apple is developing a new feature that will allow users in the European Union to copy content on their iPhone and paste it directly onto a Windows PC, and vice versa. The news was first spotted by the specialized portal MacRumors and confirmed by The Verge. This feature comes as a direct response to an interoperability request submitted by Microsoft through Apple's system, established to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
According to the description in Microsoft's request, users would be able to perform common work tasks without needing to launch specific apps or manually transfer files. The clipboard synchronization should work as an always-available, lightweight background service. On June 26, 2026, Apple proposed a project plan that envisions the iPhone sharing and importing clipboard items with a paired accessory, such as a Windows PC.
The technical solution will rely on a system similar to the one Apple has already introduced for notifications from third-party wearable devices as part of the iOS 26.5 update. The user will only need to grant permission once to the paired Windows device to access the clipboard, after which data exchange will flow automatically.
Apple notes that this is a significant engineering undertaking. Work is expected to be completed by autumn 2027, after which the feature will first be available to developers through a beta version. If everything goes according to plan and the option is integrated by late autumn 2027, the public could gain access in early 2028.
Although there is a possibility that Apple might later offer this functionality globally, for now it is certain that copy-paste between iPhone and Windows will be limited to users within the European Union. In the past, Apple has made some DMA-related features, such as transferring an eSIM from iPhone to Android, available worldwide, while other options, like AirPods-like pairing for third-party wearables, have remained exclusive to the EU market.
Currently, apps on the iPhone can only read the clipboard when they are actively running in the foreground and only with explicit user approval for each individual copy and paste action. Apple offers its own Universal Clipboard feature for its devices, enabling seamless copy and paste between iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro headsets. Microsoft has complained that existing restrictions prevent continuous background clipboard synchronization from iPhone to PC, which was the reason for submitting the request in March 2026.
