How to copy and paste on an iPhone

6 1 minute read

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

I’m always moving bits of information around on my iPhone — between documents and screens and apps — but I’m not always sure I’m doing it in the best way, especially since Apple has regularly changed the way that copy and paste works through successive versions of iOS.

That’s why I wanted to look at all the different options iOS currently gives you for copying and pasting text and images, without the familiar shortcuts you get on a computer keyboard. Those options are outlined below and will take you from basic copy and paste through to some more advanced tricks.

A note: I’m writing this guide using an iPhone 15 Pro Max running iOS 17.2.1, the latest version of the software at the time of writing.