14 DAY TRIAL // A new Google Chrome feature will allow users to copy content on one device and paste it on another, regardless of the platform that the browser is running on.
In other words, this feature will enable a shared clipboard that will be available in Google Chrome on Windows, Linux, macOS, and Android.
While shared clipboards already exist at OS level, as it’s the case on Windows 10, Google wants this feature to bring together all these platforms, as long as the browser is installed.
A Chromium Gerrit post spotted by Chrome Story details how the feature could work when it’s ready:
“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.”
Flags already there in Chrome Canary
In other words, once the shared clipboard is live, Chrome users will be able to copy content on their device within the browser and then choose the other device where the same Google account is used to send the clipboard info. The receiving device will then display a notification that shared clipboard data is available.
As per AP, evidence of this feature has already been discovered in Google Chrome Canary, where a set of experimental flags seem to already exist for the shared clipboard. However, they don’t enable any feature for now, most likely because the new functionality is still in the internal testing stage.
There’s no ETA as to when it should be finalized, of course, but on the other hand, we expect the shared clipboard to go live in Google Chrome Canary rather sooner than later for public testing.