A recent update to the Chromium Gerrit showed Google developers discussing two new flags for a "Shared Clipboard" feature. The code change indicates Google is planning on enabling you to copy text on one device and paste it to Chrome on another device.
The descriptions of the two flags read:
Enable receiver device to handle shared clipboard feature – Enables receiver device to handle shared clipboard feature by showing a notification to receive the clipboard to share.
Enable shared clipboard feature signals to be handled – Enables shared clipboard feature signals to be handled by showing a list of user’s available devices to share the clipboard.
Based on the descriptions, it seems that when using the feature, the sending device will show a list of your devices where you've logged into a Chrome account and allow you to manually choose which device you want to send the shared clipboard to. In turn, the receiving device will then show a notification of the shared content.
The extra step will definitely be a plus for privacy-conscious users, since it will ensure that Chrome isn't keeping track of everything you copy or that your clipboard isn't sent to Google's servers unless you explicitly ask it to.
When will you be able to use the feature? As Android Police reports, the latest Canary release already has the two flags available, and you can access them by going to chrome://flags via the address bar. Unfortunately, while the flags are visible, they are seemingly not operational at the moment. Their description does suggest that the feature will cover all the platforms Chrome is available on, including Windows, macOS, Linux and Android.
If you're a Windows user, Microsoft has been offering something similar for a while now. As part of its release aimed at ensuring continuity across devices, you can share the clipboard between your Windows devices and even with an Android phone, if you have its Edge browser installed. You can access this setting in the 'Clipboard' section of the Settings app, by enabling the 'Sync across devices' option.
Source: Chromium Gerrit via Techradar
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