Apple has agreed to develop a system that will let users copy and paste content between an iPhone and a Windows PC, responding to an interoperability request Microsoft filed under European Union digital competition rules.
According to an entry on Apple’s Interoperability Requests in the EU page spotted by MacRumors, the company confirmed on June 26 that it would build a solution allowing extensions to share and import iPhone clipboard items with paired accessories, including Windows PCs.
Microsoft submitted its original request on March 25, 2026, arguing that it could not offer a feature comparable to Apple’s Universal Clipboard, which synchronizes copied content across the company’s own devices. The filing asked Apple to provide persistent clipboard access that would enable continuous background syncing between an iPhone and a Windows PC.
In the request, Microsoft outlined three main use cases: copying text or other supported content on an iPhone and pasting it directly on a Windows PC and vice versa; performing productivity workflows without needing to foreground an app or take repeated manual actions to initiate a transfer; and experiencing clipboard synchronization as a lightweight, continuous capability rather than a manual, app-driven operation.
Microsoft stated that “cross-device copy and paste is a foundational productivity interaction that users expect to ‘just work’ across their primary devices,” adding that its intent “is not to replace or replicate Apple’s system experience, but to enable a basic level of cross-device productivity that users already expect when working across devices.”
Apple replied on April 27, saying that after an initial assessment it had decided to move the request “to the next phase of our interoperability process.” The company cautioned that “it may be that, despite our best efforts, it will ultimately not be feasible or appropriate to provide an interoperability solution,” including if doing so would compromise operating system integrity. Apple also noted that it had not yet assessed the impact on its intellectual property rights.
On June 26, Apple confirmed it would proceed with development and described the technical approach. The solution will follow patterns similar to the Accessory Notifications and Accessory Live Activities frameworks introduced in iOS 26.5, enabling an extension to share and import pasteboard items with paired accessories. When an item is copied to the clipboard, the system will notify the extension, which can then use the Accessory Transport Extension framework to share contents with the paired device over available transports.
Microsoft will need to adopt AccessorySetupKit,the same framework Meta recently challenged in its own EU interoperability request for AirPods-like pairing support,to obtain user permission to share clipboard content with a paired Windows PC. Users will be required to grant consent once for each device.
Apple described the project as a “significant engineering effort” and said it expects to complete development by fall 2027. The company plans to release the solution in a developer beta shortly afterward, ahead of a full public release. While the timeline suggests the feature could arrive as part of iOS 28, Apple has not confirmed which software version will include it.
Because the request was filed under EU digital competition rules, the feature may be limited to the European Union. Apple has not stated whether it intends to offer the capability outside the region.