If you frequently switch between your desktop, tablet and phone to access information, apps and the web, you’ll most likely want to be able to share content between them. I often need to send links, contact details and other random bits and bytes from one device to another, and there are now a couple of neat apps to help you do that in a flash, without the need for cables or iTunes. Here are our picks for the task.

Belt

Belt is a free cross-platform clipboard that stores snippets of text and makes them easily accessible no matter which device you’re using: it’s available as a web app, extension for Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, and on both iOS and Android.

Belt lets you sync text between your desktop browser and mobile devices easily

So how do you use Belt?

• Start by signing up for an account here, and installing the app on your iOS device.

• Log in to Belt on your browser and you’ll see a large text field. Type or paste in any text you want to send to your device and click the + button.

• You’ll get a notification on your device about a new text snippet synced to Belt – tap on it to view the snippet in the app, and choose to copy it to your clipboard, or delete it.

• You can also type or paste text into the iOS app to sync snippets with your browser.

Belt.io lets you copy text on your desktop browser or iOS device and keep your clipboard synced in the cloud.

PushBullet (requires a Google account)

PushBullet’s web app can send notifications (text and more) to your devices and browsers

PushBullet takes the concept behind Belt a few steps further: you can share not only text, but also links that launch in your device browser, send to-do lists with items you can check off, location details that launch the Maps app, and even files up to 25MB in size. The only caveat to this free service is that you need a Google account to log in and use the service, since PushBullet uses Google Cloud Messaging to send text and files back and forth. If you can get past that, this is a neat tool to use.

Get started using PushBullet:

• Log in to the web app with your Google account, and do so using the same account on your iOS device.

• On the web app, choose whether you want to send a text snippet, link, file, list or location by clicking on the appropriate icon. Then fill out the fields or select a file to upload and click Push It! to send it to your phone.

• You’ll receive a push notification immediately with your pushed text or file.

PushBullet can send files, lists and more to your iOS device

If you’ve pushed a link or location, you can launch Maps or your browser respectively to open these from the notification itself. Lists show up in the PushBullet app, and you can tap items in your list to check them off. Files of any kind can be accessed and opened from the list of received pushes in PushBullet.

You can also send text notes, links, addresses, photos or videos to your browser or to any of your other iOS or Android devices that you’ve set up PushBullet on. It’s a wee bit awkward because the app sends you a notification with your push, but you can just ignore it. Here’s how:

• Launch PushBullet, and tap the New Push button at the bottom right of the screen.

• Choose the type of content you want to send: a note from your clipboard, a new text note, link, address or photo.

• As with the web app, type in your note title and your content, or upload an image or video clip from your Camera Roll. When you’re finished, tap Push It! to send it to your browser. Yup, you’ll also receive it on the same device as a notification.

Both these apps are great for when you need to sync your text or files in a hurry. What are your favourite tools for sharing text between devices? Let us know in the comments below.