Apple’s upcoming operating system iOS 16.1 will introduce a new privacy feature that prevents apps from directly accessing a user’s iPhone‘s clipboard to paste text from other apps.
According to MacRumors, Apple has continued to refine the copy-and-paste feature over the weeks. Users can find the new “Paste from Other Apps” option in the Settings app in the new release of iOS 16.1 and later.
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.
The menu presents users with three options Ask, Deny, and Allow.
“Ask” indicates that the app should continue to request permission to paste content from other apps, “Deny” indicates that the app can’t paste content from other apps, and “Allow” indicates that the app can paste content from other apps without asking permission again.
With the new menu, users have more fine control over copy-and-paste permission prompts. However, users should note that apps that have never requested clipboard permission are not included in the menu.
