Quip - Smart Clipboard Manager for iOS & Mac

Introducing Quip: A Next-Generation Clipboard Manager

The creators of Unite, a popular web app management tool for macOS, have unveiled their latest application: Quip. This new app is designed as an advanced clipboard manager specifically for the Apple ecosystem.

Key Features and Functionality

Quip offers a range of features intended to surpass the capabilities of a standard clipboard. These include organized text clip storage, customizable shortcuts for text snippet insertion, prevention of duplicate entries, and automatic code formatting.

The application aims to provide users with enhanced control and personalization, ultimately boosting productivity.

Universal Clipboard and History Management

Quip operates unobtrusively, residing in the menu bar on Mac and as a dedicated keyboard on iOS. It maintains a comprehensive history of copied items across all your Apple devices, functioning as a universal clipboard.

Users can effortlessly search this history and tailor storage parameters, such as the retention timeframe, maximum number of items, and individual item size limits.

Organization and Filtering

The app allows for filtering copied content by type: text, links, images, code, files, and the date it was copied.

Furthermore, Quip enables the grouping of clipboard items into collections for quick access. Smart collections can be created to automatically categorize specific clipboard entries.

Privacy and Security

Recognizing the sensitive nature of clipboard data, the developers have implemented customizable privacy controls.

By default, Quip excludes sensitive information like passwords, credit card details, and personally identifiable data from its clip history. It also ignores temporary data, including cache files, auto-generated content, and debugging information.

Users have the ability to refine these settings, specifying apps and keywords to be excluded from clipboard monitoring.

Text Expansion with “Super Shortcuts”

A particularly useful feature is the “super shortcut,” which allows users to define short phrases that expand into longer text strings. For example, a keyword like “addr” could instantly paste a complete address.

This functionality extends to links and code snippets as well.

Content Capture and Smart Features

Quip also facilitates capturing content directly from presentations, videos, and PDFs using a designated shortcut.

The application incorporates several intelligent features, including URL cleaning, duplicate entry prevention, whitespace removal, and automated code formatting.

Apple Continuity Camera Support

Quip seamlessly integrates with Apple’s Continuity Camera feature, enabling users to transfer sketches, documents, or photos from their iPhone to their Mac via the menu bar app.

AI Integration and Future Development

Binyamin Goldman, the app’s developer, stated that the application currently utilizes existing Apple Natural Language Processing (NLP) capabilities for on-device intelligence. Plans are in place to transition to Apple’s offline AI models later this year to unlock further functionality.

Goldman also revealed that the development of Quip was significantly aided by AI tools such as Cursor and Claude, allowing him to handle a larger portion of the coding process than in previous projects.

Pricing and Availability

Quip is available for a free two-week trial. A yearly subscription costs $14.99, granting access across iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. A standalone macOS license can be purchased for $19.99.