Skip to content

Notice

An Announcement About Batch Clipboard Version 2.0!

As described last month in a teaser blog post, a new and improved version of the Batch Clipboard app for macOS is in beta and imminently will be available to testers in TestFlight. The changes we've been able to finish turned out to be substantial enough to warrant the version number 2.0 instead of just 1.1.

To not bury the lede, in celebration of the first beta of this new version, the in-app purchase in the Mac App Store's current version, 1.0.3, will be half price for the next 4 weeks, or as long as it takes for 2.0 to go final. For that time it's a one-time purchase of now US$1.99 that never expires, so will count for version 2.0. Read on to hear what it unlocks.

First however, what is Batch Clipboard? It's a minimal clipboard utility for the Mac that strives to be far simpler than a full clipboard manager and provides mostly just the one feature other apps describe as serial paste, or a clipboard queue. Its user experience is just a top-right menu and global keyboard shortcuts: the same Command-C and Command-V you know but with Control also held down, so ^⌘C and ^⌘V.

It has no large window demanding you to now "manage" your clipboard history. However, somewhat hypocritically, it has stealthily provided a clipboard history feature visible by opening its menu with the option key pressed. During the lead up to 1.0 as well, some features were added for completeness but sacrificing more of the app's intended simplicity.

Version 2 is all about regaining simplicity yet extending the batch feature in a new and terrifically useful direction:

  1. Now, by default, the app no longer collects your clipboard history! With macOS 26 getting this as a built-in feature, this was an easy decision with some interesting implications...

    Firstly, this permitted the change to arrange the menu items representing the current batch in a more natural top-down order, the one first in the menu being the one that will be pasted first.

    Secondly, by foregoing history, the app is largely able to turn off its background clipboard monitoring. Only after invoking the start of a batch, or the first batch copy with the menu or shortcut, does the app start monitoring the clippboard in the background.

    Finally, for the set of existing users, we didn't want to yank features away so we decided to continue supporting the history feature if the user chooses that. This lets the user continue to open the menu with the option key pressed to view and choose history items to repaste, and user of the App Store version who've made the in-app purchase can continue replay a batch of clips from the reent history and use the Undo Last Copy menu item.

  2. A new feature that recalls the previous batch pasted, so the whole set can be pasted again.

    This improves upon a feature that was previously only available in the App Store version after making an in-app purchase. This non-free feature was cumbersome, yet this new feature that replaces it is available to all and far more straight-forward, just a simple new menu item.

    Also, the General panel in the Setting window allows you to pick a custom keyboard shortcut to invoke it. Take that, version 1.0!

  3. A winning expansion on this feature for users making an in-app purchase in the App Store version: saved batches.

    The most recent batch copied, in addition to being replayed again, can be saved along with a title, and it will be shown and selectable in the menu anytime.

    Each saved batch can also be given its own custom keyboard shortcut. 🤯

A more complete list of changes since version 1.0.3 is available here.

The 2.0 version will be available from the Mac App Store at https://apps.apple.com/app/batch-clipboard/id6695729238, or from GitHub at the new link https://github.com/jpmhouston/Batch-Clipboard/releases, and also I expect the GitHub releases to be available from homebrew with brew install batchclipboard.

Beta versions will be available before then on GitHub, and you're also welcome to sign up to test betas of the App Store version via TestFlight at this link. But note, in-app purchases made in a TestFlight beta aren't real, you aren't charged and they won't count for the final release. If you want to test the beta in addition to taking advantage of the half price in-app purchases price, then:

  • First get the current release version from here on the Mac App Store,
  • Visit the Setting window's Support Us panel and complete the purchase,
  • Find Batch Clipboard in your Applications folder and trash it,
  • Finally visit this TestFlight page and follow the instructions to become a tester and download the beta.

An Update About the Upcoming Version 1.1

An update to Batch Clipboard is in progress! It will soon be simpler, be even less of a clipboard manager, and better fit with the upcoming macOS 26 Tahoe.

The global shortcut keys Control-Command-C and Control-Command-V (or whatever you customize them to be) aren’t going anywhere, nor is their ability to collect multiple clipboard items at once and paste them where you like. However, the app is being simplified even further, eliminating a small but persistent performance hit to your system, while introducing a new, more unique feature for power users in place of the version 1.0's somewhat-hidden clipboard history features.

The new release will either be version 1.1 or 2.0, or perhaps 2.6 as a nod to Apple’s macOS 26.

Previously, the app continuously monitored clipboard changes whenever it was running, maintaining a recent history whether you used that feature or not. This behavior was inherited from Maccy, the open-source project from which Batch Clipboard was forked. The batch feature and the presentation of items in the menu were built on top of that foundation. It made sense to leave clipboard history as a secondary feature, and add related bonus abilities as a perk for in-app purchasers.

Now that macOS includes a built-in clipboard history, it makes less sense to duplicate that functionality. By abandoning constant monitoring for clipboard changes, we avoid the minor performance penalty it caused. Removing clipboard history also allows us to simplify the menu item. Current version have an expanded menu (revealed with an option-click) which was designed to display the history in menu items in reverse order, bottom oldest and newest at the top. Menu item representing the current batch used to be shown the same way in compatibility with that. Now however, there will be no expanded menu displaying history and menu items showing the current batch in progress will instead be listed in a more natural, top-down order.

For anyone who relies on the current behavior, we’ve kept it as an optional mode, controlled by a switch in the Storage panel in the app’s Settings window. After upgrading, the Intro window will appear again with a new page explaining this change and letting you choose between the new behavior or the legacy mode.

Admittedly, this new default, history-free mode removes the key perk that for those who supported the app’s development via in-app purchases, as it was closely tied to clipboard history. To make up for that, we're happy to announce that a new and very exciting bonus feature is in the works, one that's been requsted and may be a great benefit for power users. Details will be announced soon, sometime after this version's first beta release on TestFlight.

Batch Clipboard will remain free to download and use its core feature, as well as the legacy clipboard history feature for anyone who wants to turn that on. Anyone supporting the project via in-app purchase will get the current and future unlocked features. The app will remain open source on GitHub with a permissive MIT license.

Stay tuned!

  • The folks a Bananameter Labs
  • in Notice
  • 1 min read

Wwdc 2025

Hello world! To celebrate the new home, documentation, and blog webpages and also to celebrate the week of Apple's WWDC 2025, the in-app purchase in the App Store version of Batch Clipboard has been reduced in price to $0.99, effective June 9th to 13th 2025.

This site has only been possible with the use of Material for MkDocs, a theme and set of enhancements for MkDocs. It's allowed us to start with a set of markdown documentation files from the app's GitHub wiki and turn them into a standalone website. The work of everyone involved is greatly appreciated.

Revising documentation pages imported from the wiki is still an ongoing process, and for the time going some links on this site will redirect there.

Thanks from everyone here at Bananameter Labs. :wink: