TL;DR: One of many options Android 13 launched when it launched final 12 months could be very helpful in lots of conditions, however it might additionally reveal delicate data relying on how lately sure apps have been up to date. Enabling autofill permissions can mitigate the hazard of passwords showing as plaintext on an Android gadget’s clipboard.
Android 13 lets customers see and edit no matter is within the clipboard, however the function might additionally reveal delicate knowledge, like passwords, to whoever else may be a tool’s display screen. If an app would not mark that data as non-public, activating autofill within the settings can circumvent the issue.
Beginning with Android 13, at any time when Android customers copy textual content, photos, or different data, a bubble seems on the backside of the display screen displaying what the consumer simply copied. From there, customers have a wide range of choices with the clipboard’s contents: they’ll edit, share, and use the textual content or photos to carry out actions throughout completely different apps.
The brand new clipboard performance can save customers quite a lot of time for a lot of completely different duties, however the cellular apps for password managers additionally often work via the clipboard. Copying credentials from a password supervisor into one other app might trigger Android 13’s clipboard to disclose that data to anybody wanting on the display screen, particularly if the app in query hasn’t obtained an replace for Android 13.
Builders engaged on Android 13 should outline whether or not or not copied textual content is delicate so the clipboard is aware of to not show it publicly. Android 13 can even periodically mechanically delete the clipboard’s historical past when customers copy delicate data onto it.
Many password managers have obtained updates since Android 13’s launch final summer season, however not all, so some customers won’t be totally protected. As an illustration, these nonetheless utilizing 1Password 7 should manually improve to 1Password 8, which has the most recent updates for Android 13.
Activating autofill permissions for managers and different apps that do not mark delicate textual content ought to make them mechanically enter copied textual content into fields, bypassing the clipboard. Customers can do that by finding the autofill service within the settings display screen and deciding on their app of alternative. The setting’s location will differ relying in your Android gadget. Moreover, not all gadgets use the usual model of Android 13.
Customers also needs to take care to vary their password supervisor’s clipboard settings on all gadgets and working techniques to mechanically clear copied textual content after a set period of time. A few of them, like Bitwarden and Keeper, go away textual content within the clipboard indefinitely by default.