Microsoft preparing clipboard sync between Windows and Android with Gboard support

Ben Schoon | Sep 3 2025 - 3:30 am PT

Microsoft appears to be working to add clipboard sync between Windows 11 and Android through its Phone Link system, and it works with Gboard too.

Clipboard sync has been available through various tools for Windows and Android over the years, but there haven’t been any “go-to” options as of late due to various changes in how Android has been handling the clipboard recently.

Now, Microsoft is working on its own option.

The folks over at Windows Latest spotted the option to turn on an “Access PC’s clipboard” toggle in Phone Link that allows the Windows clipboard to be shared with Android devices. The option is appearing only in early Dev builds at the moment, but seems to work quite well.

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Once turning on both the option in Phone Link and a second setting in the system clipboard options, items from the clipboard immediately start appearing on Android. The publication found that everything syncs to the system clipboard rather than Microsoft’s SwiftKey in particular, meaning it works with Gboard and other keyboards such as Samsung Keyboard. Ironically, there was apparently more trouble using SwiftKey than anything else.

There’s an obvious downside here, though.

While this first-party-ish option is as close to native integration as we’ll ever get, it only works in one direction. Content copied on Windows can be pasted on Android, but it doesn’t go the other way around, at least based on this early preview. Still, it could be handy for passwords, links, or anything else you just need to pull from your computer back to your phone.

Would you use this functionality?