This clipboard app that works across devices resolves the copy-paste issues I frequently encounter on my Mac.

      I have lost track of how many times I've copied something important, then copied something else before pasting, only to find that the initial item is no longer available. It's a minor annoyance, but it occurs often enough to be frustrating. I recently discovered ClipboardAI, which caught my eye because it enhances Apple’s built-in clipboard by preserving copied items in a searchable history.

      Rather than overwriting your last copied item each time, ClipboardAI maintains a searchable record of copied text, links, codes, email addresses, phone numbers, addresses, and images across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. This means that older clips remain available even when new ones are copied.

      It saves, organizes, and retrieves clips swiftly.

      ClipboardAI employs on-device AI to categorize copied items into links, codes, emails, addresses, phone numbers, text, and images. Users can also create collections for frequently reused material, such as research links, templates, travel details, or saved snippets.

      The keyboard extension is what makes the app particularly useful. It can display up to 20 recent clips within any iOS text field, allowing you to paste something you copied earlier without leaving apps like Messages, Mail, Slack, Safari, or others.

      The app can summarize copied text, generate link previews, detect languages, provide translations, convert lists into checklists, and solve math problems or unit conversions. Some features will be frequently useful, while others may be more situational.

      Privacy is a crucial aspect.

      Since clipboards often store sensitive information such as passwords, codes, addresses, emails, phone numbers, and copied messages, privacy is essential for apps like this. ClipboardAI keeps AI functionalities on-device, stores clips locally using SwiftData, and refrains from utilizing analytics, ads, third-party SDKs, or developer-managed servers.

      The app also handles sensitive clips differently from standard copied items. It can recognize passwords, API tokens, credit card numbers, and Social Security Numbers, and will obscure them by default. Passwords can vanish after 60 seconds, and sensitive clips remain inaccessible in the keyboard extension unless the user opts to change that setting.

      Syncing is done through the user's own iCloud account and is optional. The free version offers automatic capture, categorization, search, and up to 10 saved clips. The Pro version provides unlimited clips, iCloud sync, the keyboard extension, AI features, and collections, with a 7-day yearly trial and a $24.99 lifetime option.

      Not everyone requires a clipboard manager. However, if you frequently lose copied links, codes, notes, or addresses several times a week, ClipboardAI could serve as a beneficial alternative to Apple’s built-in clipboard.