iOS 16.1 Introduces New Copy-and-Paste Permission Settings on Per-App Basis

iOS 16 introduced a new privacy feature that requires apps to receive a user's permission before directly accessing their iPhone's clipboard to paste text from other apps, but some users experienced an issue that caused the prompt to appear excessively. Apple released iOS 16.0.2 with a fix for the issue and other bugs in late September.

Paste From Other Apps Feature 1
Apple has continued to refine the copy-and-paste feature in the weeks since. In the Settings app on the fourth beta of iOS 16.1 and later, a new "Paste from Other Apps" menu appears for apps that have previously asked for permission to paste content from another app. The menu can be found in the Settings app → [App Name] → Paste from Other Apps.

The menu presents users with three options:

  • Ask: The app must continue to request permission to paste content from other apps.
  • Deny: The app cannot paste content from other apps.
  • Allow: The app can paste content from other apps without asking for permission again.

The menu gives users more granular control and flexibility over the copy-and-paste permission prompts, which should help make the privacy feature less of a nuisance. Note that the menu does not appear for apps that have never requested clipboard permission.

Last month, an Apple engineer said the copy-and-paste permission prompt only appears when an app attempts to access the clipboard directly. The prompt does not appear when a user selects the "Paste" option in the menu that pops up after highlighting text or interacts with apps that have paste buttons based on the UIPasteControl framework.

iOS 16.1 remains in beta testing and is expected to be released later this month.

(Thanks, Youssef Salem!)

Related Roundups: iOS 16, iPadOS 16
Related Forum: iOS 16

Top Rated Comments

sniffies Avatar
22 weeks ago
Anything Zuck-related:

Deny Deny Deny Deny Deny
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
FelixDerKater Avatar
22 weeks ago
Options are good. Keep up the good work.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JosephAW Avatar
22 weeks ago
iOS has officially become Vista. :rolleyes:

Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jvchappy Avatar
22 weeks ago
Finally! I've been waiting for this security feature for SO LONG
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Paddle1 Avatar
22 weeks ago

Isn't this becoming a bit too complex?

I agree against allowing any app to read the clipboard, of course. But a system setting for that?

Apple used to be about making the right decisions for the user and offering a clean experience.
Not at all, this is a huge improvement. There are apps that will just copy without asking that you may need to use and not want to be spammed with the prompt, the deny option will help with that.

There are other times auto-pasting or asking is helpful such as entering tracking numbers.There is no one option that will be preferable in every case.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bLackjackj Avatar
22 weeks ago

Apple released iOS 16.0.2 with a fix for the issue ('https://www.macrumors.com/2022/09/22/apple-releases-ios-16-0-2/') and other bugs in late September.
Thats totally incorrect. I use SwiftKey and STILL get asked multiple times, even after that incremental update.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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