How to cut, copy, and paste on Android phones
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The VergeCutting, copying, and pasting are actions that are regularly performed in apps and between apps: getting an address from a message into a map, moving an image from an email to a document,...
Konoly
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24016604/VRG_Illo_HT007_K_Radtke_Pixel_03__1_.jpg){kind=tracking}
Cutting, copying, and pasting are actions that are regularly performed in apps and between apps: getting an address from a message into a map, moving an image from an email to a document, or just transferring text from one end of a note to another. But while I’ve known how to cut, copy, and paste on a laptop or desktop computer for, well, forever, I wasn’t quite as sure at first how to do it on my Android phone.
In fact, cutting, copying, sharing, or pasting on Android is pretty straightforward — no matter which app you’re in or what you’re trying to move around. Here’s how to do it.
Note: I’ve tested these techniques on a Google Pixel 8 running Android 14 and a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 running Android 14 and One UI 6.0.
Selecting, copying, and sharing text
When you highlight a section of text, a small bar of options will pop up above your selection.
When you copy or cut text, you’ll see it above your Gboard keyboard.
The process for selecting text on the screen, whether it’s editable text (as in a form) or non-editable text (like on a webpage), is the same in most scenarios:
In some apps (such as Google Keep), you can also double-tap on a word to select it, rather than tapping and holding. You might find this easier if the app you’re using supports it. (Gmail, for example, does not.)
However you do it, once you select your text, you’ll get a list of options that appear above the selection.
Android actually has a neat trick where if there’s text on the clipboard when you pull up the on-screen keyboard, you’ll see that text ready to paste just above the keys — just tap the text to paste it at the current cursor position. (This works on Google’s default Gboard keyboard, the Samsung Keyboard, and it might work on other keyboard apps as well.)
There is another option if you’re moving text within a document: with the text selected, long-press somewhere in the selection, then drag it to its new location. This works in the same way as going via the clipboard and the Cut and Paste options.
You will notice some variations in different apps — for example, in Chrome, where if you press on the current site URL, you’ll get a copy icon that you can select, not a pop-up bar. In general, though, use a long press to select and copy and a long press to paste.
Selecting, copying, and pasting images
Image copying is simple in Chrome — just press and hold to get a pop-up menu.
In Google Photos, there’s no copy option; you have to share the photo.
Working with images is a lot more dependent on the app you’re using, in my experience, but a long press is a good place to start. In Google Chrome, for example, press and hold on an image, and you’ll see a pop-up dialog with a Copy image option on it.
It’s not quite this simple in every other app. If you’re looking at an image in Google Keep, you need to tap on it to make it full screen, then tap the three dots (top right), then choose Copy. In Google Docs, you just need a single short tap to bring up the Copy option.
Pasting is very simple, no matter which app you’re in.
This is assuming you can paste at all. In Google Photos, which may well be where you’re sharing most images from, there’s no copy feature at all, strangely enough. In this app:
It’s the same story in quite a few other apps, including WhatsApp and Google Messages. You can’t access copy and cut options there, only the standard share option.
While the image copying and pasting process is rather inconsistent between apps — and at times not available at all — you should be able to get your pictures from one place to another without too much difficulty.
