Sending text wont work, sends current URL instead

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Please answer the questions about build version and network, will save
developers a lot of time !

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Select some text around the web.
2. Right click the selection and click "Chrome to phone"
3. -

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
I expect to get the selected text copied to my phone clipboard and getting a 
notifaction about that in the notification area.
With the current version of Chrometophone my phone receives the website the 
selected text was on and opens it in the browser.

What version of the android, in Settings -> About phone -> Build number (
ex. FRFxx ) ? GWK74 - CyanogenDefy

Is the phone using WiFi or mobile network when problem occurs ? Mobile Data 
2G/3G

Can you open "Gmail" application ? Do you see new messages without hitting
'refresh' ? Yup.

Can you open "Talk" application ? Do you see incoming chats ?
Yes.

Please provide any additional information below.
Extension Version 2.3.1
Problems seems to occur since the last update of the Android app via the market.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by marcel.schroeter@gmail.com on 2 Feb 2012 at 10:58

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Same problem here.

I use CM9 (which is not finished yet) on my Galaxy S, but I don't think that's 
the problem.

Original comment by k.schasf...@gmail.com on 12 Feb 2012 at 2:07

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Yes, I have the same exact problem on my Samsung Galaxy Young (Y). When I 
highlight text inside a browser window, then click "Send this text to Android," 
my Android prompts me to open a browser, then google.com opens up.

However, if no text is highlighted, and I simply right click in the browser 
window and select "Send this page [vs. text] to Android," it goes off without a 
hitch.

Original comment by android3...@gmail.com on 14 Feb 2012 at 8:54

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P.S. Since it's been a couple weeks now and many other netizens are apparently 
having this issue, perhaps considering changing the priority level to "high"?

/$.02

Original comment by android3...@gmail.com on 14 Feb 2012 at 8:56

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Can confirm I am getting this exact issue after a recent update been fine until 
then.

Interestingly though if I type a phone number into a text box, select it and do 
chrome to phone it sends it to the phone dialler correctly.

It is only the copy text and clicking the "chrome to phone" option that 
incorrectly sends the page.

Original comment by G.G.A.Ro...@gmail.com on 23 Feb 2012 at 10:52

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Same problems as described above...text selected to "Send this text to Android" 
sends link to "www.google.com" no matter what page is being viewed where the 
highlighted text is.  I can confirm this occurs with STOCK/UNROOTED and ROOTED 
(running MikG v2.56 custom ROM) EVOs (on Sprint).  And AGREE that this should 
be bumped up in priority!!

Original comment by scudd...@gmail.com on 26 Feb 2012 at 7:28

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Any updates on this one chaps?

Original comment by ad...@aerislifestyle.com on 10 Mar 2012 at 1:41

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Going to the app page in the market developer's notes in the What's New section 
for update Feb 1, 2012 states that the behavior was changed to send only the 
web page even if text is selected.

Like you, this is an irritating change and makes the app nearly worthless for 
my use.  Perhaps if enough people complain we can get them to at least make 
enabling or disabling this behavior an option, rather than them deciding how 
our apps should behave for us.

Original comment by dkees...@gmail.com on 16 Mar 2012 at 3:27

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ugh, does anyone have an old version we could just install then?

Original comment by G.G.A.Ro...@gmail.com on 16 Mar 2012 at 4:06

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I just picked this one from my TB backup made in January: 
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21558454/com.google.android.apps.chrometophone.apk

It's version 2.2. If it's true what dkees..@gmail.com says, this one should 
work.

Original comment by k.schasf...@gmail.com on 16 Mar 2012 at 4:11

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I think the behavior depends on the routines on their servers, rather than on 
your app. but nevertheless thanks for your effort!

Original comment by marcel.schroeter@gmail.com on 16 Mar 2012 at 4:15

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I’ve been using 2.2 ever since they updated the version in the Market/Play 
Store. It definitely works as it should and sends text correctly as text into 
the phone’s clipboard.

Original comment by PatrickWesterhoff on 16 Mar 2012 at 4:18

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Oh well, it does not work on ICS. ChromeToPhone 2.2.0 FCs when sending text.

Original comment by k.schasf...@gmail.com on 16 Mar 2012 at 4:21

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"I just picked this one from my TB backup made in January: 
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21558454/com.google.android.apps.chrometophone.apk"

Uninstalling the new version and installing this one  brings back the copy to 
clipboard functionality for me! Happy days.

Thanks very much mate.

Original comment by G.G.A.Ro...@gmail.com on 16 Mar 2012 at 4:45

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Thanks k.schasf for sharing the old version.  Works like a charm.  Just be sure 
to go to Market/Play store and turn auto update off or it won't work long.  :))

Original comment by dkees...@gmail.com on 16 Mar 2012 at 4:49

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marcel, read it for yourself - it has nothing to do with servers:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.chrometoph
one&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5nb29nbGUuYW5kcm9pZC5hcHBzLmN
ocm9tZXRvcGhvbmUiXQ..

Click the What's New tab, and you will see:

What's new in this version:
Changed behavior to send web page even when text is selected (since some 
websites automatically select text without user involvement)

If you disable auto update in the market, then uninstall the app, find an app 
kit for a version that worked on your phone before the Feb update and install 
it, it will work.  If it doesn't, then you probably have hardware issues.

Original comment by dkees...@gmail.com on 16 Mar 2012 at 4:59

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Wow, indeed, you are right! Works like a charm. Thank you very much! This makes 
this app so much more useful!
I disconnected this one from the PlayStore via Titanium to keep this version 
until they reimplement the original functionality.

Original comment by marcel.schroeter@gmail.com on 20 Mar 2012 at 12:47

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Could someone provide an link to a apk with the former behaviour (sending the 
selected text only, not the webpage)?

Original comment by khalid.r...@gmail.com on 20 Mar 2012 at 6:08

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See comment #9 for a useable version!

Original comment by marcel.schroeter@gmail.com on 20 Mar 2012 at 6:15

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Doh, sorry... And thanks :-)

Original comment by khalid.r...@gmail.com on 20 Mar 2012 at 6:17

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Same issue here, reverted to 2.2 just because of this.
A simple fix is to revert the r298 change that has been done. 
https://code.google.com/p/chrometophone/source/detail?r=298#
Though this could have been done to fix a bug.

Original comment by matthieu...@gmail.com on 23 Mar 2012 at 11:34

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The dev actually answered it in   issue 417  
https://code.google.com/p/chrometophone/issues/detail?id=417#c3
And lists reasons for the change.

Original comment by matthieu...@gmail.com on 23 Mar 2012 at 11:44

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Those are pretty bad reasons. If anything then it is an issue of the browser 
extension, not the receiver, to make sure that only things are sent the user 
actually wants to send.

I don’t know how the original browser extension works, but in FoxToPhone this 
is pretty clear: You click the icon if you want to send the current URL, and 
make it open on the phone. Otherwise you *right click* the icon and get the 
option to send the clipboard to the phone.

I don’t get how this will actually change anything without adjusting the 
browser extension as well. If before, if you had text selected, the text was 
send (and copied to the phone’s clipboard), what happens now is that the 
browser opens the start page. That does not sound more user friendly to me at 
all.

Original comment by PatrickWesterhoff on 23 Mar 2012 at 3:40

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I tend to agree, the reasons are not good enough to warrant a change (ain't 
broke, don't fix it). Though there was a bug with ICS in the handling of text 
(non url), so maybe instead of fixing the bug and keep  the functionality, the 
buggy functionality has been removed.
The user selection can be modified by the page, that is a fact. Knowing that, 
I'm still not sure there is great risk. Could a scripted ad change the user 
selection (via javascript) before it's sent to the browser extension, and 
generate pageviews or worse (you open a third party page that you didn't intend 
to open on the phone) that way ?

Original comment by matthieu...@gmail.com on 23 Mar 2012 at 3:47

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Selected text shouldn’t ever open the URL on the phone. Selected text should 
only be sent as text to the clipboard. If it is a link, then okay, make it send 
the link.

FoxToPhone does this very well in my opinion. If you have nothing selected, the 
context menu gives the option to “Send this page to Android”, if you have 
text selected it is “Send this text to Android”, if you right click a link 
it’s “Send this link to Android”. Everything else is done via the toolbar 
icon (normal click sends current page, everything else is in the context menu).

Original comment by PatrickWesterhoff on 23 Mar 2012 at 3:56

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The two reasons given are indeed very bad. Those are not malfunctions of the 
app or browser extension, but of the user. What is so hard about just clicking 
on the webpage to deselect? And if this mistake was made, then you see it soon 
enough on your phone. Just correct the mistake by deselecting any text prior to 
push the ChromeToPhone button.

I just tried to revert 
http://code.google.com/p/chrometophone/source/detail?r=298 and update the 
clipboard methods to the not-deprecated alternative, but it did not work, it 
still force closes. I'm not really a Android developer or something and I'm 
sure that this isn't that hard to fix.

Original comment by k.schasf...@gmail.com on 23 Mar 2012 at 10:15

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Same problem here. Please change it back the way it was.

Original comment by claycoff...@gmail.com on 30 Mar 2012 at 9:42

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Same problem. +1 change it back the way it was.

Original comment by luigi.ca...@gmail.com on 30 Mar 2012 at 11:07

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Same problem. +2 change it back the way it was.

Original comment by dan.a...@gmail.com on 31 Mar 2012 at 3:55

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Just to clarify:
- Copy and paste of text works the same in Chrome to Phone 2.3 as it did in 2.2.
- The only difference is that the web page you are on is *also* sent to the 
phone.
- There is no loss of functionality.

So, for example: 
1 Go to any website, select some text, press the Chrome to Phone button
2 The same website opens on your phone
3 Go to any text box on your phone, long press, select Paste, and the text 
selected in 1 appears.

Why the change? Turns out some websites pre-select the text. If sending that 
web-page, the browser on the phone wouldn't launch with that page and confused 
folks (it wasn't obvious). Again, you can still paste the text, so no 
functionality was removed.

Original comment by burke.da...@gmail.com on 31 Mar 2012 at 6:19

• Changed state: WontFix

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There is no loss of functionality, but a definite loss of user friendliness.  
If some people were confused before, the new way is much more confusing.  I had 
to search a lot to find this. Sure, the text is in fact being sent. However, it 
isn't clear that the text is being sent. It looks like only a website is.

Original comment by mazob...@gmail.com on 31 Mar 2012 at 11:13

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I think it should be a problem that should be solved in the browser add-on. 
FoxToPhone UI manages very easily to distinguish between sending the page and 
sending the selected text. If clicking on the extension button, you always send 
the page. If right clicking then selecting "send text", then you send the text.

Original comment by matthieu...@gmail.com on 31 Mar 2012 at 11:26

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Sorry, but that is really ridiculous. As this bug clearly shows, there is a lot 
confusion about this behaviour. With the change you tried to fix some issue 
that the _browser client_ has, not the receiving phone app. As I explained 
above in comment 24, it should have been fixed in the browser extension, making 
a clear separatation about sending a link, and sending text to the clipboard. 
It is the fault of the Chrome browser extension that such a separation is 
missing.

You said, that previously “it wasn’t obvious”, but sending text now, is 
not obvious at all. I want to send text (only), and on the phone the browser 
starts up with my start page – not obvious. In addition the phone’s 
clipboard is suddenly replaced with the text I wanted to send, without any 
further hint that this happened – not obvious at all!

In issue 417, you said this: “they'd accidentally select text and no notice 
the notification that said the clipboard was copied” – With the new 
version, there is not even a notification. If you send text (which I do a 
lot!), then the browser just starts up, but you have no idea that the text you 
sent, was actually copied to the clipboard too. This is really not obvious and 
is a terrible user experience.

In addition I can see issues raising up, where people complain that sending a 
_link_ accidentally overwrote the clipboard on the phone. If I want to send a 
link, I don’t expect my clipboard to be overriden by the app, ever. And if I 
want to send text, I don’t want the browser to start up.

The Chrome browser extension really needs to separate sending text and sending 
links, like FoxToPhone does. It is a wrong behaviour in the beginning that when 
text is selected, and the Chrome to Phone button was pressed, which main 
functionality is advertised as sending the current URL to the phone, that the 
text was actually sent.

If you don’t want to change the browser extension in a way, that makes the 
usage more clear, then at least separate the following three actions on the 
phone:

- Sending both a link and text; opens up the browser and stores the text in the 
clipboard
- Sending a link only; only opens up the browser
- Sending text only; only stores the text in the clipboard, and gives a 
notification about that fact (like in 2.2)

Then you could make the the first action the default for Chrome to Phone, which 
wouldn’t change the current (apparently wanted, but imho broken) behaviour. 
And other extensions, having the power to distinguish between sending links and 
text (like FoxToPhone), can use the separate actions to trigger the wanted 
behaviour on the phone.

But if you decide leaving the functionality in the broken way it is, I am going 
to stay on version 2.2 indefinitely.

Original comment by PatrickWesterhoff on 31 Mar 2012 at 11:39

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Wow, such a horrible change in regards to user friendliness.

Thanks for the 2.2 link, I'll go back to that until they revert the change.

Original comment by irow...@gmail.com on 12 Apr 2012 at 5:16

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For anyone still interested, I made a patch to be able to send custom text to 
the phone (see http://code.google.com/p/chrometophone/issues/detail?id=162), 
doesn't seem to be picked up though. I am able to create/host a custom 
apk/chrome extension, you would have to allow custom apk's for your android 
device in that case though.

Original comment by dfa...@gmail.com on 19 Apr 2012 at 6:30

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Hi dfader,

will your custom apk version work with the same browser extension or would the 
users have to change both?
From my point of view the solution with using the 2.2 version is sufficient, 
the only drawback is the disturbing play store, that always bugs me with 
updates.
Unless you would also provide an alternative version for the firefox version of 
the App (named FoxToPhone) I'd rather use the official 2.2 one.
If I could still use the firefox version together with your custom apk - the 
thought of not having to deny that update every single day is promising.

As long as I am the only one interested in the custom version, I think the 
effort isn't worth it. I am OK with using the old version.

One other thing, that bothers me, is that the official App from Google has no 
Changelog in the german Play store, neither in English nor any other language, 
so I'd never knew when they fix their "fix" sometime in the future... An 
English changelog would be more of a help for me than nothing. Yes, I'm looking 
at you, Google ;) Please leave the english changelog intact instead of 
providing us a plain white nothing.

Have a nice weekend everybody,
Marcel

Original comment by marcel.schroeter@gmail.com on 20 Apr 2012 at 9:50

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Hi Marcel,

The APK will work with the same browser version (without the support for the 
'send text to phone' feature, since that is implemented in the extension).

I think I will be able to modify the FoxToPhone project too, I only changed 
some HTML and javascript. Is the FoxToPhone project a different project (I 
don't know it, that's why I ask)?

I'm not sure what you mean with the play store and the daily updates. But as 
said, you can still use the 'old' extension.

I think the issue with the changelog is something different and should be 
created as a new issue :)

Original comment by dfa...@gmail.com on 23 Apr 2012 at 4:08

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What I meant was: I have multiple unsynced browser installations of Chrome and 
Firefox. So it would be great, if the browser extension could stay the same. I 
don't know if the C2D Message from the original Chrome extension would even 
reach the custom apk, but if they would, that would be great!

FoxToPhone is the Firefox Counterpart of ChromeToPhone. FoxToPhone uses the 
same Android app (ChromeToPhone), but I don't know if it has officially been 
developed by Google or if it's just a community project.

The issue of the play store's daily upgrades is, that every single day since 
reverting to 2.2 of ChromeToPhone-APK it bugs me "Updates available!". I always 
press "Update all", wait for a minute and afterwards reinstall 2.2 Version via 
Titanium Backup.
It doesn't make any difference how many times I broke the marketlink via 
Titanium Backup, cleared the market cache or deinstalled it via Play Store - it 
always relinks itself to the play store and asks me to update next day. I don't 
seem to be able to find a way of blocking market updates for that specific 
app...

<tl;dr> The Version 2.2 works pretty darn well. I hate the play store asking me 
every day for updates. If your version could circumvent that, that'd be cool. 
Nevertheless it'd be too much effort, to do this for one user.

Original comment by marcel.schroeter@gmail.com on 23 Apr 2012 at 6:28

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Comment 13 did the trick, although this is really weird, but thanks a lot!

Original comment by a.amr.sa...@gmail.com on 6 Jun 2012 at 4:11

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i agree - comment 13 works well. i don't see the point of having the browser 
launch (and lose the page i was on) just to copy text to the clipboard.

is anyone else having a problem getting phone numbers to work? i select a phone 
number, right click on it, and select "chrome to phone" and NOTHING happens on 
my phone. i'm wondering if it has to do with the google voice chrome extension 
which pops up a small css stylesheet next to where i was right clicking that 
says "call xxx-xxx-xxx" in the title and has a combo box for selecting the 
phone and a connect button. i suspect the two plugins (voice and 
chrome-to-phone) are conflicting.

Original comment by lclem...@gmail.com on 25 Jul 2012 at 4:05

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You have to send a tel-URI to have the phone recognize it as one: i.e. 
"tel:123456890".

Original comment by PatrickWesterhoff on 25 Jul 2012 at 4:12

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doing the tel:xxx-xxx-xxxx doesn't work for me.

i think i figured it out. it turns out that there there really is a conflict 
with the google voice and chrome to phone extensions, but it's easy to fix. the 
voice plugin i'm referring to is this one: 
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/kcnhkahnjcbndmmehfkdnkjomaanaooo

right click on the google voice button in chrome by the address bar. select 
options. make sure the radio button "Selectable Numbers - Selecting numbers 
triggers the click to call popup." is unchecked. restart chrome. now i can send 
numbers to my phone again with chrome to phone! 

after unchecking that box, you can still make calls through google voice though 
- the voice plugin turns all numbers into a link so you can just LEFT click the 
link and that little click-to-call popup window will let you make a google 
voice call. left click for google voice, right click for chrome-to-phone.

Original comment by lclem...@gmail.com on 25 Jul 2012 at 4:28

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i take that back - the tel:xxx-xxx-xxx does work. but disabling that checkbox 
in the voice plugin is the real fix.

Original comment by lclem...@gmail.com on 25 Jul 2012 at 4:30

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Sorry, I'm confused. How do I get the old functionality back? I uninstalled the 
Chrome-to-Phone extension from the browser but the link in comment 9 didn't 
replace it with the old version.

More user-friendly? Less confusing? Pig's arse! I used to love this extension; 
I could select a number in Google Contacts, click a button, and my phone would 
dial. Now, instead of just clicking a button, I need to click the button, go to 
my phone, log into whatever page I was on, hunt for the phone number and tap 
that? Whomever thinks that is acceptable UX shouldn't be working for Google, or 
anywhere in the Valley.

Original comment by original...@gmail.com on 25 Aug 2012 at 10:36

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Try the link in comment 13 - it worked for me about one month ago

Original comment by lclem...@gmail.com on 25 Aug 2012 at 6:09

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The link in comment 13 IS the link in comment 9 (my comment). It only works for 
Android < 2.3 I think.

But since I know that the copied text is still placed in the clipboard, I don't 
have problems with the newer version anymore. I have more then one webbrowser 
installed, so the link doesn't launch directly (but asks for with what to open 
instead) and the copied text is still placed on the clipboard. So the new 
version does not really make a difference.

Original comment by k.schasf...@gmail.com on 25 Aug 2012 at 6:13

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I think the removal of this features and the two reasons posted are all excuses 
because the developers were lazy and were not able to fix the "causes crash" 
bug.

1. Some users shouldn't lose a feature because of retarded users that "were 
confused by the feature".
2. The feature shouldn't have been removed just because of a few "websites 
automatically select text" in sacrifice of the other 99% that don't.

As someone PatrickWesterhoff said before in comment 32, this clearly wasn't an 
App issue, but a bug with the desktop chrome browser extension that doesn't 
really separate these two distinct actions. Context menu should show TWO 
options. Even when a link is right clicked, we should also have both options of 
either (a) launch link; or (b) copy link to clipboard.

I'm a fan of Google solutions. This solution doesn't sound like Google.

Original comment by skydiver...@gmail.com on 20 Sep 2012 at 6:24

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Haven't you noticed that Google has been busy revoking features in nearly all 
of their products lately?  

Just off the top of my head, Picasa, Drive, YouTube, iGoogle, Reader, have all 
been stripped of basic functionality or customizability in recent redesigns or 
updates, and almost all of it has been the removal of features that were 
already working.  With G+ they just didn't even bother with it, and Google is 
far from alone, you can find in in just about any recent software or website. 
MS started stripping settings out in Windows 7, and they're going full out with 
Windows 8, Apple's form over function philosopy is becoming mainstream.  Start 
paying attention and you'll start to notice things being stupidified everywhere 
because things like buttons, menus, and options don't look "pretty".

Original comment by dillyb...@gmail.com on 20 Sep 2012 at 6:43

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Google, Please reinstate Copy text to Clipboard !!!!!!!!!!! 

Its painful to select text on the mobile, selecting with a mouse was so much 
easier..

Original comment by haribom...@gmail.com on 29 Sep 2012 at 3:47

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I'm seriously considering writing my own alternative chrome-to-phone app, 
except that it will do things like send text to your phone's clipboard without 
popping up a browser window (which was half the freakin point of chrome to 
phone).

Original comment by lclem...@gmail.com on 30 Sep 2012 at 7:50

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Save the time and hassle and read comment #9 instead.
Everything works like a charm.

Original comment by marcel.schroeter@gmail.com on 1 Oct 2012 at 6:41