Microsoft and Google are working to improve the Clipboard API and enhance the usability of apps like Edge and Chrome

With the arrival of Windows 11 we have seen how Microsoft is committed to PWA applications and Win32 type applications even so that they occupy a preferential place in the Microsoft Store, leaving UWP or Universal Applications on the sidelines. At the time we saw how the future was of Progressive Web Applications and Microsoft is pointing in that direction with the improvement in which it works together with Google

Both giants are immersed in the development of a new API that allows to improve the exchange of files between the system clipboard and the different Web applications.It is about increasing the variety of files that can be used between both ecosystems.

Improving the web experience

Microsoft and Google are working on a new Pickle Clipboard API that allows web applications and websites to read and write more file types and thus overcome the limited number of formats they now support.

So far, when exchanging files between the system and a PWA the API supports the most popular types, allowing files of text, image, rich text... other more specific formats are left out, which are the ones that must be accommodated with the new API.

This is the case of not so popular formats, non-standard web formats such as TIFF, intended for high-quality images, or formats proprietary as .docx, which are not supported by the current web platform.

With the new API they are working on, file sharing between web apps and native apps or the operating system should be even more powerful. With the Pickle Clipboard API the browser will handle the clipboard format name in a standardized way Microsoft says the new API will allow:

• Allow copy/paste between web and native apps using the system clipboard.
• Developers can create custom clipboard formats.
• Preserve security / privacy.
• Provide detailed control over the clipboard.
• Built on top of the existing Async Clipboard API.

Chromium-based browsers, in the case of Edge and Chrome, will be the first to benefit from this improvementThis new API is useful for developers, but also for users, as for example it will make it easier to copy documents from File Explorer and paste them into Google Docs or Microsoft Word.

Via | WindowsLatest Cover image | Flickr