Yoink for iPhone and iPad

Yoink v2.3 for iPad and iPhone is now available on the App Store and brings a couple of neat new features for users of iOS 15 and iPadOS 15.

Yoink is a file- and snippet “shelf”, in a “hold this for me while I do something else for a while” sort of way.
Anything you can drag, copy, share or download, you can store in Yoink.
When you eventually need it, you can access files either directly from within the app, Yoink’s custom keyboard, and Siri Shortcuts. It also syncs across your iOS devices via iCloud.

First things first, with this update, I’ve decided to drop support for iOS 11, up to and including iOS 13, and will only support iOS 14 and newer going forward. After taking a look at the app’s usage statistics Apple provides on App Store Connect, having Yoink support iOS all the way back to version 11, which I did up until today, doesn’t make sense anymore.

What’s New in Yoink v2.3 for iPad and iPhone [on iOS 15]

+ Picture-in-Picture, with a twist.
With Yoink’s Picture-in-Picture you can, of course, play videos.
But you can also show websites, images, texts, eMails and PDFs in PiP.
Below are two videos showing a website being scrolled in PiP, and images being shown in PiP.

A website being opened – and scrolled – in Yoink’s Picture-in-Picture mode. Scrolling also works in text-, eMail- and PDF files.
Images being shown in Yoink’s Picture-in-Picture mode.

Now, you might ask, as I have when I first came up with the idea: “Isn’t this what Slide-Over is for, or Side-by-Side?”.
Well, yes. Until you’ve used this.
If you need an overlay wherever you currently are, not wanting to worry about having to manage the Slide-Over app when switching between full screen apps, this comes in very handy. I haven’t used it for a long while yet (this feature is internally maybe two weeks old), but I’ve been using it daily ever since. It also focuses entirely on the content it displays, without the app’s UI taking up screen space.

+ Support for Quick Notes
Select a file in Yoink and you’ll be able to reference it in a Quick Note, as you can see in the video below.

+ Mouse/Trackpad Band Selection on iPad
A minor improvement, but still very useful, you can now draw a rectangle around files to select them if you’re using an iPad with a mouse or trackpad.

+ Inter-app Drag and Drop on iPhone
Not really a new feature of Yoink itself, but of iOS 15 in general is drag and drop of content between apps.
This makes Yoink’s keyboard on iPhone now on-par with the iPad version, because now you can drag content from Yoink’s keyboard directly into the text area; no copy-paste necessary.

What’s New in Yoink v2.3 for iPad and iPhone [aside from iOS 15-only features]

+ Improved Info Panel
I’ve improved the Info panel, especially for Stacks. Instead of just showing the size of the Stack, you now have quick access to all files contained within it, which you can drag out, copy, or share right away.

The improved Info panel for Stacks now shows the files contained within, which you can drag out, copy or share right away.

On iOS 15, the Info panel, depending on whether you’re using the app in full screen or not, is now presented as a sheet, allowing you to view more content at once.

The Info Panel as a sheet on iOS 15.

+ Audio can now continue playing in the background
+ Yoink now appears in “Open In” dialogs
+ Many, many performance-, compatibility- and reliability improvements
+ Even more bug- and crash fixes

Where can I get Yoink?

Yoink is available for iPad and iPhone on the App Store; it’s a one-time purchase of $5.99 / € 5,99 / £ 4.99.
It requires iOS 14 or newer. To sync across your iOS devices, an iCloud account is required.

Yoink is also available for Mac on the Mac App Store.

Further Links

Yoink for iPad and iPhone Website | Yoink on the iOS App Store
Yoink for iOS Usage Tips
Yoink for iOS Press Kit (.zip download)

Yoink for Mac Website | Yoink on the Mac App Store
Yoink for Mac Usage Tips
Yoink for Mac Press Kit (.zip download)

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Yoink for Mac v3.5.16

This update contains a couple of quality-of-life improvements and a few bug- and crash fixes.

Website (+ demo)
Mac App Store
Setapp

Yoink for iPad and iPhone v2.2.5

It was actually supposed to be v2.2.4, but I mistyped, so here we are.
Improves the “Get Item from List” Siri Shortcut by providing icons and subtitles for improved identification of items.
It also fixes two crashes, one of which occurred on iOS 15.

Website
iOS App Store

Transloader for Mac v3.0.4

This improves the synchronization of your downloads’ statuses and file sizes, and fixes a couple of bugs along the way.

Website (+ demo)
Mac App Store
Setapp

Transloader for iPad and iPhone v3.0.4

More bug fixes (and also includes the status / file size sync improvements of the Mac version).

Website
iOS App Store (free)

Enjoy 🤗

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Yoink for iPad and iPhone Usage Tip #7

The following explains how to use Yoink on iPad in Slide-Over or Split View.
For more Usage Tips like this, click here.


It seems quite a few people have been getting new iPads recently – to those, I say: congratulations on your purchase 🥳
Coincidentally, that’s probably why I’ve been asked quite frequently lately how to use Yoink in Slide-Over or Split View.
Here’s a quick guide on how to do it.

1) Use Yoink in Slide-Over

– With a full screen app open, swipe up from the very bottom of your iPad to reveal the Dock
– Drag Yoink from the Dock to the side of your iPad’s screen

In Slide-Over, you can reposition Yoink to either edge of your iPad’s screen, or dismiss it by dragging it all the way to the right.

2) Use Yoink in Split View

– With a full screen app open, swipe up from the very bottom of your iPad to reveal the Dock
– Drag Yoink from the Dock to the top right of your iPad’s screen
Alternatively, If Yoink is already in Slide-Over, drag the its top horizontal indicator to the top right of your iPad’s screen, and it will enter Split View.

In Split View, you can adjust the size of each Split view app by dragging the indicator between them.
You can remove an app from Split view by dragging the top horizontal indicator of the app.

Further Reading

Apple’s iPad User Guide
Use Multitasking on your iPad
Open an app in Slide Over

 

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With iOS 14 comes a new privacy feature – a little banner at the top that shows you whenever an app accesses the clipboard.

Screenshot of iOS 14's Simulator showing the clipboard alert banner

I recently was asked in a tweet whether this was a bug. It’s not. It’s a feature 😉
But please let me explain in a little more detail what Yoink is doing here exactly.

Yoink accesses the clipboard without direct user-input in three cases:

Case 1 – Yoink’s Clipboard Bar

As you can see in the screenshot above, Yoink displays a small bar with the contents of the clipboard, allowing you to quickly store that content in Yoink (or, if it’s a URL pointing to a file, download that URL in Yoink).
To be able to display this bar, Yoink asks the clipboard whether it has new contents. It asks once when the app is put into the foreground, or regularly, in an interval whenever Yoink is used as a Side-by-Side or Slide-Over app (to be able to update the contents of the bar).

The clipboard bar comes in three settings (which can be changed in Settings.app > Yoink) :

  1. Ask
    This will make the clipboard bar appear whenever something new is on the clipboard (and will “monitor” the clipboard when the app is used as Slide-Over or Side-by-Side)
  2. Automatically store
    This turns off the clipboard bar, but will still check the clipboard for new content and automatically store it in Yoink.
  3. Never
    Turns off the clipboard bar and the auto-store feature, so the clipboard isn’t accessed

What I’m changing about this with the next update

Right now, the default setting is 1 – Always Ask for new clipboard content. This I want to keep, because I believe it to be a nice feature (and I’ve seen it used a lot).
However, I’m making it more obvious to turn it off, as you currently have to navigate into the Settings.app to change it.
So, whenever the ‘x’ button is pressed (to tell Yoink no, don’t store the clipboard’s current content right now), I’m asking the user directly if they’d like to keep the bar, turn it off, or always store new content automatically.
It’ll look something like this, after the bar has been dismissed:

Screenshot of new settings options

Case 2 – The Add from Clipboard Button

In Yoink’s top left corner sits the Add from Clipboard button. It is either active or not. To enable and disable it, Yoink queries the clipboard’s contents regularly (if it’s used in Slide-Over or Side-by-Side), and thus also causes the “clipboard accessed alert” to be shown.
It’s just a UI thing I thought would be neat, but ultimately, it’s unnecessary.

What I’m changing about this with the next update

I’ll remove the clipboard checking for this button and display an alert instead if there was nothing to be pasted on the clipboard.

Case 3 – Download a URL

Whenever you select “Download URL” from Yoink’s “+” menu, Yoink will check your pasteboard to see if you’ve copied a URL. If there is a URL, it’ll insert it automatically for you, if there isn’t, it leaves the URL field empty (and ignores the clipboard, of course).

Screenshot of Yoink's Download URL UI

What I’m changing about this with the next update

In iOS 14, Apple provides new API which allows developers to see if there might be a URL on the clipboard without actually accessing it. I’ll be using this going forward.

I hope that clears things up about Yoink’s usage of your clipboard.
And just to reiterate: I’m not interested in anybody’s data at all, and you can review my privacy policy here.

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