How to copy and paste between devices
Copy on your phone, paste on your laptop — or any other combination. The reliable cross-platform way is a shared room you open in the browser on both devices.
Copying and pasting between devices sounds like it should be trivial, and within one ecosystem it nearly is — Apple's Universal Clipboard handles iPhone-to-Mac, and same-brand Android setups have their own paths. The problem is everything else: iPhone to Windows, Android to Mac, a phone to a friend's laptop, a work PC you can't install anything on. Those pairs have no shared clipboard at all.
The approach that works regardless of platform is a shared room. You open the same website on both devices, pair them once with a six-digit code, and from then on anything you put in the room on one device appears on the other — text, links, images and files alike.
How to do it in three steps
- 1
Open a room
Go to pastehere.app in any browser and create a room. You'll get a six-digit code — no sign-up, nothing to install.
- 2
Pair the second device
Open the same site on the other device and type the six-digit code (or scan the QR) to join. The devices agree on a key directly, so the server never sees it.
- 3
Copy on one, paste on the other
Add text, a link, an image or a file on either device and it appears on the other within a second. Destroy the room when you're done.
Everything is encrypted in your browser with AES-256 before it leaves the device. Devices agree on the room key through a PAKE exchange over the 6-digit code, so the key never reaches the server — it only ever stores ciphertext.
Why there's no universal copy-paste built in
Clipboard sync is built per-ecosystem: Apple's works between Apple devices on the same Apple ID; Microsoft's clipboard history stays within Windows; Google's sharing covers Android, ChromeOS and Windows. None of them cross into each other, by design, because each is tied to that vendor's account and devices.
A browser-based room sidesteps the whole problem: it doesn't belong to any ecosystem, so it treats an iPhone, an Android phone, a Mac, a Windows PC and a Linux box exactly the same. The only thing the devices need in common is a modern browser and the six-digit code.
Is it safe to copy passwords and private text this way?
With pastehere, yes. Everything you add to a room is encrypted in your browser with AES-256 before it leaves the device, and the two devices agree on the encryption key directly through the code, so the server only ever stores ciphertext — never your text. You can destroy the room the moment you're done, removing it everywhere.
Questions
What's the easiest way to copy text from a phone to a computer?
Open a room in the browser on both, pair them with the 6-digit code, then add the text on your phone — it's on the computer's clipboard a second later. No account or install, and no length limit on text.
Can I copy and paste between an iPhone and a Windows PC?
Yes. They share no native clipboard, so open a pastehere room in the browser on both and pair with the code. Then copy on one and paste on the other — text, links, images or files.
Do I need to install an app or create an account?
No. pastehere runs entirely in the browser with nothing to install and no sign-up. Pairing is just typing a 6-digit code on the second device.