Everything you copy, on every device you own
UniClip keeps a searchable clipboard history on your Mac and syncs it to your iPhone and iPad. Every item is sealed on the device before it is uploaded, so the server holds ciphertext it has no key for.
Free · macOS 14 or later · iOS 17 or later
Nothing Apple ships covers this
Clipboard history is a solved problem on Windows and a partial one on the Mac. What is still missing is a durable history that spans the Mac you work on and the phone in your pocket.
| Windows Clipboard (Win+V) | macOS 26 Spotlight | Universal Clipboard | UniClip | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keeps a history | Yes | Yes, 7 days | One item | Yes |
| Syncs between devices | Windows to Windows | No | Hand-off only | Mac, iPhone, iPad |
| Works across Mac and phone | No | Mac only | One item at a time | Yes |
| Searchable | No | Yes | Nothing to search | On device |
| Text and images | Text only in sync | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Windows has had this since 2018, cloud sync included — but only Windows to Windows, and only text.
macOS 26 added a clipboard history inside Spotlight. It is Mac-only, caps at seven days, and does not sync.
Universal Clipboard holds exactly one item. It is a hand-off, not a history.
How it works across your devices
The two platforms behave differently, because Apple made them behave differently. Here is exactly what each one does.
On the Mac
UniClip sits in the menu bar and captures continuously. Copy anything, anywhere, and it lands in the history — searchable, and synced to your other devices.
- Captures every copy in the background
- Search the full history from the menu bar
- Text and images
On iPhone and iPad
Your full history arrives on the phone and is ready to paste. Capture works differently: you hand the phone something, through the share sheet or the UniClip keyboard, and it joins the history.
- Everything copied on the Mac appears automatically
- Add items with the share sheet or the keyboard
- Search runs on the device
iOS cannot read the clipboard in the background
Apple closed that in iOS 16, and no app can reopen it. So the phone does not watch what you copy — the Mac does that, and the phone receives it. When you want something that started on the phone, you hand it over deliberately. We would rather say so here than have you discover it on day one.
Your clipboard lives where the suggestions go
Most clipboard apps on iOS hand you an extension you have to switch to, use, and switch away from. UniClip is a real keyboard — the one you type on all day.
Full QWERTY, emoji, autocorrect and glide typing. Set it as your default and leave it there — your clipboard runs along the top, where the suggestion bar normally sits, so everything you copied is one tap away in any app without opening anything.
- Everything a keyboard should do: QWERTY, emoji, autocorrect, glide typing
- Your clips sit along the top, in every app
- Type the first few letters of something you copied and it appears beside the word suggestions
- No switching keyboards, no opening an app, no search box
The server stores ciphertext it cannot read
Your clipboard is the most sensitive stream on your machine — it carries whatever you were about to paste. That is a design constraint, not a marketing angle.
Your passphrase, your key
The encryption key is derived on the device from your passphrase with PBKDF2 at 600,000 rounds. It never leaves your devices and is never sent to us.
Sealed before upload
Every item is encrypted with AES-GCM on the device that captured it. What reaches the server is a blob it has no key for, and stored rows are indistinguishable from random.
Search runs on the device
Not as a privacy feature — as a consequence. The server has nothing it could index, so searching has to happen where the key is.
It asks before it touches your keyboard
On the Mac, UniClip can press ⌘V for you after you pick an item. That is off until you turn it on, and turning it on shows you exactly what it will do first — before macOS is asked for anything.
- One ⌘V to the app you were typing in, and that is the only keystroke it ever sends
- UniClip posts keys; it cannot receive them, so it cannot see what you type
- macOS asks separately, and you can withdraw it at any time
- Left off, choosing an item copies it and you paste it yourself
It holds things back before they are ever recorded
Encrypting everything is not enough if the wrong things end up in the history in the first place. All three of these are on from the moment you install it.
Content an app marks confidential — always
Anything published as org.nspasteboard.ConcealedType is refused from the type alone, before its value is read. Not a setting: the marker is another app asking not to be recorded, so you are not the only party to the decision.
Anything copied out of a password manager — unless you say otherwise
Twelve are excluded when you install it, from 1Password to the macOS Keychain. Add your own, or remove any of the ones that came with it — a removal is remembered.
Anything shaped like a credential — unless you turn it off
API keys, JWTs, private keys and Luhn-checked card numbers are recognised, kept on the device that copied them, shown masked, and never uploaded.
Turning something off is a decision, not a confession
Test credentials that reach nothing real, a key you are moving between machines on purpose, or simply preferring a complete history because it is end-to-end encrypted — that being the entire point. UniClip does not ask twice and does not switch itself back on at the next update. What you let through is sealed with your key before upload, exactly like every other item.
One account across the family
UniClip signs in with your UniAuth account over OpenID Connect, using an authorization code flow with PKCE. Signing in gives the sync service an identity to attach your items to. It does not give it your encryption key — that is derived from your passphrase and stays on your devices.