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Ask HN: Since when has copy/pasting images "just worked"?

by collectedparts on 3/23/24, 6:59 PM with 4 comments

I've recently found that copy/pasting images just works in a surprising number of contexts:

* MacOS: on Chrome, "copy" image, "paste" into Twitter composer on Chrome

* iOS: on Safari, "copy" image, then go to WhatsApp native app and "paste" image

One small detail I've noticed is that on MacOS/Chrome, GIFs pasted into web WhatsApp end up getting pasted as just a still image. On iOS, GIFs pasted from Safari to native WhatsApp get pasted as GIFs.

I'm not complaining, it's legitimately useful, but it just feels like it happened suddenly, even though arguably it'd require support from various players. Did I just miss something?

More generally, if it's now trivial to share content in private message threads via copy/paste vs needing to share a link to the underlying content, that would seem to be yet another hit to the ability of content creators to control and monetize their content.

  • by ksherlock on 3/24/24, 5:13 PM

    MDN says the ClipboardEvent (used for this sort of thing) was implemented between 2013 (FireFox) and 2017 (Safari).

  • by nh23423fefe on 3/23/24, 7:36 PM

    creators never had control of their content. if you send me bits they are my bits.

  • by mac3n on 3/23/24, 10:34 PM

    copy/paste images was a demo feature in the original 128k Macintosh.

  • by cranberryturkey on 3/23/24, 7:02 PM

    i noticed it about a year ago.