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How to access and manage your clipboard on Android
April 26, 2025
Knowing where the clipboard is on Android is handy when copying and pasting text. Here’s how to find the clipboard on Android.
QUICK ANSWER
On Android 13 or newer, copy or cut any text and then tap the small preview window in the screen's bottom left-hand corner. This will open the clipboard where you can edit entries. On Android 12 and older, open any text field and tap the Clipboard Icon to see the clipboard. You can tap on entries to paste them into a field and pin entries in place so they don't disappear after an hour by tapping and holding an entry.
How to find and edit your clipboard on Android
You can access the clipboard in two ways on Android. Both are described below.
Using Gboard
Gboard isn’t just Google’s official keyboard. It is also an important part of the clipboard experience on Android, and it integrates seamlessly with this feature. Gboard comes installed by default on many Android phones, including Pixel phones.
- Copy any text.
- To access the clipboard from Gboard, tap on any text field to make the keyboard come out.
- Tap on the Clipboard Icon at the top of the keyboard before you type anything. (If this is your first time using Gboard, you may have to tap Turn on Clipboard before it becomes active.)
- You’ll see the text you have copied recently.
- To paste anything on your clipboard, tap on it.
- The Pencil icon allows you to select your entries. You can either delete them or pin them.
To customize the keyboard further, tap the Gear icon > Clipboard. Here, you can choose whether recently copied text and images show up as suggestions, customize if phone numbers and addresses show up in recently copied text, and even enable the saving of screenshots to the clipboard.
Using the visual clipboard
Since Android 13, phones use the visual clipboard by default. This makes it even easier to see your clipboard. Copy or cut some text, and you will see a small pop-up showing a preview of this text in the bottom left-hand corner. Tapping on that window lets you edit the clipboard’s content before pasting it again. This feature works on compatible Pixel phones, but you may not see it on other models.
Android 14 made some changes to this layout, introducing a newer, minimized preview of this dialog that expands when you tap it.
FAQs
Yes, after about one hour, clipboard entries delete themselves.
Anything you cut or copy gets saved to the Android clipboard.
To paste any entry from the clipboard, tap on a text field, and a Paste option will show up. Tap on it.