I’d like to add one more item to Stephen Hackett’s iOS wishlist: clipboard history. This feature doesn’t have to be user-facing, instead it could be an API that developers use to build more robust clipboard managers.

I’ve only just recently become interested in clipboard managers for iOS and they’re generally a pretty lackluster experience. The only way for the app to save your entire clipboard history is if you launch the app in between each cut or copy. Many applications also feature a Today View widget, but because the apps aren’t able to constantly monitor the clipboard for changes, it often results in a lot of situations where that one thing you need slips through the cracks.

To help fix this problem, Apple could offer developers an API which would give them access to the 10-20 most recent clipboard items. This would result in much more useful clipboard managers by eliminating the need for this tedious app switching dance.