Copy and Paste "Pickling" upgrade could move beyond text and basic images

Microsoft and Google are working together to bring new power to one of the most classic acts of computing in web browsing. Chrome and Edge-based web apps currently allow copy and paste action with images and text – but what about the rest? An update coming to the fold soon rolls with Pickle Clipboard APIs, making more formats compatible with copy and paste with "pickling."

According to documentation of this new code, Pickle Clipboard API will allow websites to read and write "arbitrary unsanitized payloads" using a new standardized "pickling format." This new system will require that native applications opt-in before accepting the new "unsanitized content" as such. This new system will work with formats not currently standardized for this process, like TIFF and docx.

Documentation suggests that Pickling could be used by developers that currently have both native and web apps to move files and data between apps. It's also suggested that web apps could support "popular but not-web-standardized formats" such as GIFs. Finally, one could potentially send a moving image from one app to another, allowing it to continue to move as it's moved.

The Github listing for Pickling for async clipboard API shows positive feedback for Edge, and "request for position" status for Firefox and Safari. Both Figma and Sketchup are listed as Positive, too. It's also suggested that "While engineers at Firefox, Safari, and Edge have had positive feedback regarding exploring Pickling, no representatives of these implementers have commented on this particular proposal yet."

Take a peek at the timeline below for more information on the latest upgrades to Google Chrome – and cross your fingers for this Pickling tech to appear in the next waves of updates to Edge-based browsers, Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, and others.