Plain Text Paste

This is an app I’ve had on my iOS devices forever, it does one thing, and it’s one of the most useful, frequently-used apps I’ve got. Absolutely wonderful. It’s a throwback to the old days when apps were more one-dimensional, and I absolutely love that this one is still here, supported, and not trying to become something more (and therefore keeping its delightful simplicity)!

I’ve been looking for a quick and simple way to get rid of formatting for workflows that involve me copying and pasting text between apps on my iPhone. This does the job in a no-frills way. I’m giving 3 stars because there were no instructions or onboarding help to understand how the app works, which is a big omission because it took me a little while to figure it out. Developers: you did the work, the app works well, you’re charging for the app, put some extra work in helping customers understand what to do quickly and easily. Thank you for your work!

I think I can clear up some confusion here. When people say “there’s no menu” and “the app doesn’t do anything,“ they are partially correct. There AREN’T any menu options, which can be frustrating when you’re used to seeing something like “OK“ or “Cancel.” But that’s sort of the beauty and the “flaw“ of this app: It appears that it really doesn’t do anything, because it doesn’t require user intervention. In that sense, it’s an unusual app because it doesn’t work the way most other apps do. So what does it do? You copy some text from another app, maybe text that has stuff like web addresses or text formatting, or whatever, and all you want is the Plain Text to paste into a different app, but without all the other “crap“ loaded up and altering the text. You only want the words, not the font color or the directions to the address that’s embedded into whatever you’re trying to copy. Step 1: copy text that includes formatting that you want to get rid of. Step 2: run Plain Text Paste. DO NOTHING ELSE WITHIN THE APP! DO NOT LOOK FOR BUTTONS TO PRESS! DO NOT SCROLL! DO NOT POKE ABOUT! Simply run the app. Step 3: go to the other app in which you want to paste the text (but without all the formatting), tap the screen and choose Paste. The end. The “problem“ with this app is not that it doesn’t do anything, it’s that what it does, it does so well, that most people don’t realize what it’s actually doing. There are plenty of other text apps that will do exactly what this app does, and for free, but then you would have to paste the text within the app, choose Select All, and then choose Copy. This app reduces the other extra steps. In fact, it removes ALL steps except simply running the app. if you have text on the clipboard that you want to get rid of to “start over,“ you’ll have to go back to the original text and re-copy it. There’s no “flush clipboard“ option, and maybe there should be. Kudos to the developer for this app, but please update the instructions.