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Expo Clipboard iconExpo Clipboard

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A universal library that allows getting and setting Clipboard content.


expo-clipboard provides an interface for getting and setting Clipboard content on Android, iOS, and Web.

Platform Compatibility

Android DeviceAndroid EmulatoriOS DeviceiOS SimulatorWeb

Installation

Terminal
npx expo install expo-clipboard

If you're installing this in a bare React Native app, you should also follow these additional installation instructions.

Usage

Clipboard
import * as React from 'react';
import { View, Text, Button, StyleSheet } from 'react-native';
import * as Clipboard from 'expo-clipboard';

export default function App() {
  const [copiedText, setCopiedText] = React.useState('');

  const copyToClipboard = async () => {
    await Clipboard.setStringAsync('hello world');
  };

  const fetchCopiedText = async () => {
    const text = await Clipboard.getStringAsync();
    setCopiedText(text);
  };

  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      <Button title="Click here to copy to Clipboard" onPress={copyToClipboard} />
      <Button title="View copied text" onPress={fetchCopiedText} />
      <Text style={styles.copiedText}>{copiedText}</Text>
    </View>
  );
}

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    justifyContent: 'center',
    alignItems: 'center',
  },
  copiedText: {
    marginTop: 10,
    color: 'red',
  },
});

API

import * as Clipboard from 'expo-clipboard';
On Web, this module uses the AsyncClipboard API, which might behave differently between browsers or not be fully supported. Especially on WebKit, there's an issue which makes this API unusable in asynchronous code. Click here for more details.

Methods

getImageAsync(options)

NameTypeDescription
optionsGetImageOptions

A GetImageOptions object to specify the desired format of the image.


Gets the image from the user's clipboard and returns it in the specified format. Please note that calling this method on web will prompt the user to grant your app permission to "see text and images copied to the clipboard."

Example

const img = await Clipboard.getImageAsync({ format: 'png' });
// ...
<Image source={{ uri: img?.data }} style={{ width: 200, height: 200 }} />

Returns

  • Promise<ClipboardImage | null>

If there was an image in the clipboard, the promise resolves to a ClipboardImage object containing the base64 string and metadata of the image. Otherwise, it resolves to null.

getStringAsync(options)

NameTypeDescription
options
(optional)
GetStringOptions

Options for the clipboard content to be retrieved.

Default: {}

Gets the content of the user's clipboard. Please note that calling this method on web will prompt the user to grant your app permission to "see text and images copied to the clipboard."

Returns

  • Promise<string>

A promise that resolves to the content of the clipboard.

Only for:
iOS

getUrlAsync()

Gets the URL from the user's clipboard.

Returns

  • Promise<string | null>

A promise that fulfills to the URL in the clipboard.

hasImageAsync()

Returns whether the clipboard has an image content.

On web, this requires the user to grant your app permission to "see text and images copied to the clipboard".

Returns

  • Promise<boolean>

A promise that fulfills to true if clipboard has image content, resolves to false otherwise.

hasStringAsync()

Returns whether the clipboard has text content. Returns true for both plain text and rich text (e.g. HTML).

On web, this requires the user to grant your app permission to "see text and images copied to the clipboard".

Returns

  • Promise<boolean>

A promise that fulfills to true if clipboard has text content, resolves to false otherwise.

Only for:
iOS

hasUrlAsync()

Returns whether the clipboard has a URL content.

Returns

  • Promise<boolean>

A promise that fulfills to true if clipboard has URL content, resolves to false otherwise.

setImageAsync(base64Image)

NameTypeDescription
base64Imagestring

Image encoded as a base64 string, without MIME type.


Sets an image in the user's clipboard.

Example

const result = await ImagePicker.launchImageLibraryAsync({
  mediaTypes: ImagePicker.MediaTypeOptions.Images,
  base64: true,
});
await Clipboard.setImageAsync(result.base64);

Returns

  • Promise<void>

Deprecated. Use setStringAsync() instead.

setString(text)

NameTypeDescription
textstring-

Sets the content of the user's clipboard.

Returns

  • void

On web, this returns a boolean value indicating whether or not the string was saved to the user's clipboard. On iOS and Android, nothing is returned.

setStringAsync(text, options)

NameTypeDescription
textstring

The string to save to the clipboard.

options
(optional)
SetStringOptions

Options for the clipboard content to be set.

Default: {}

Sets the content of the user's clipboard.

Returns

  • Promise<boolean>

On web, this returns a promise that fulfills to a boolean value indicating whether or not the string was saved to the user's clipboard. On iOS and Android, the promise always resolves to true.

Only for:
iOS

setUrlAsync(url)

NameTypeDescription
urlstring

The URL to save to the clipboard.


Sets a URL in the user's clipboard.

This function behaves the same as setStringAsync(), except that it sets the clipboard content type to be a URL. It lets your app or other apps know that the clipboard contains a URL and behave accordingly.

Returns

  • Promise<void>

Event Subscriptions

addClipboardListener(listener)

NameTypeDescription
listener(event: ClipboardEvent) => void

Callback to execute when listener is triggered. The callback is provided a single argument that is an object containing information about clipboard contents.


Adds a listener that will fire whenever the content of the user's clipboard changes. This method is a no-op on Web.

Example

Clipboard.addClipboardListener(({ contentTypes }: ClipboardEvent) => {
  if (contentTypes.includes(Clipboard.ContentType.PLAIN_TEXT)) {
    Clipboard.getStringAsync().then(content => {
      alert('Copy pasta! Here\'s the string that was copied: ' + content)
    });
  } else if (contentTypes.includes(Clipboard.ContentType.IMAGE)) {
    alert('Yay! Clipboard contains an image');
  }
});

Returns

  • Subscription

removeClipboardListener(subscription)

NameTypeDescription
subscriptionSubscription

The subscription to remove (created by addClipboardListener).


Removes the listener added by addClipboardListener. This method is a no-op on Web.

Example

const subscription = addClipboardListener(() => {
  alert('Copy pasta!');
});
removeClipboardListener(subscription);

Returns

  • void

Interfaces

ClipboardImage

ClipboardImage Properties

NameTypeDescription
datastring

A Base64-encoded string of the image data. Its format is dependent on the format option.

NOTE: The string is already prepended with data:image/png;base64, or data:image/jpeg;base64, prefix.

You can use it directly as the source of an Image element.

Example

<Image
  source={{ uri: clipboardImage.data }}
  style={{ width: 200, height: 200 }}
/>
size{ height: number, width: number }

Dimensions (width and height) of the image pasted from clipboard.


GetImageOptions

GetImageOptions Properties

NameTypeDescription
format'png' | 'jpeg'

The format of the clipboard image to be converted to.

jpegQuality
(optional)
number

Specify the quality of the returned image, between 0 and 1. Defaults to 1 (highest quality). Applicable only when format is set to jpeg, ignored otherwise.

Default: 1

GetStringOptions

GetStringOptions Properties

NameTypeDescription
preferredFormat
(optional)
StringFormat

The target format of the clipboard string to be converted to, if possible.

Default: StringFormat.PLAIN_TEXT

SetStringOptions

SetStringOptions Properties

NameTypeDescription
inputFormat
(optional)
StringFormat

The input format of the provided string. Adjusting this option can help other applications interpret copied string properly.

Default: StringFormat.PLAIN_TEXT

Types

ClipboardEvent

NameTypeDescription
contentstring

Deprecated. Returns empty string. Use getStringAsync() instead to retrieve clipboard content.

contentTypesContentType[]

An array of content types that are available on the clipboard.

Subscription

NameTypeDescription
remove() => void-

Enums

ContentType

Type used to define what type of data is stored in the clipboard.

ContentType Values

HTML

ContentType.HTML = "html"

IMAGE

ContentType.IMAGE = "image"

PLAIN_TEXT

ContentType.PLAIN_TEXT = "plain-text"
Only for:
iOS

URL

ContentType.URL = "url"

StringFormat

Type used to determine string format stored in the clipboard.

StringFormat Values

HTML

StringFormat.HTML = "html"

PLAIN_TEXT

StringFormat.PLAIN_TEXT = "plainText"