Android should be able to copy HTML snippets to the system clipboard.

ui/base/clipboard/clipboard_android.cc

 // Copyright (c) 2012 The Chromium Authors. All rights reserved.
 // Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be
 // found in the LICENSE file.
 
 #include "ui/base/clipboard/clipboard.h"
 
 #include "base/android/jni_string.h"
 #include "base/lazy_instance.h"
 #include "base/stl_util.h"
 #include "base/strings/utf_string_conversions.h"
@@ skipping 79 matching lines @@
   return ContainsKey(map_, format);
 }
 
 void ClipboardMap::Set(const std::string& format, const std::string& data) {
   JNIEnv* env = AttachCurrentThread();
   base::AutoLock lock(lock_);
   SyncWithAndroidClipboard();
 
   map_[format] = data;
   if (format == kPlainTextFormat) {
-    ScopedJavaLocalRef<jstring> str = ConvertUTF8ToJavaString(
-        env, data.c_str());
-    DCHECK(str.obj() && !ClearException(env));
+    ScopedJavaLocalRef<jstring> str = ConvertUTF8ToJavaString(env, data);
+    DCHECK(str.obj());
+
     Java_Clipboard_setText(env, clipboard_manager_.obj(), str.obj());
+  } else if (format == kHTMLFormat) {
+    // Android's API for storing HTML content on the clipboard requires a plain-
+    // text representation to be available as well. Because of an std::map's
+    // keys being ordered, any plain-text representation will be set already.

[bulach, 2013/10/25 14:32:47]

I'm not quite sure what std::map order has to do here?
presumably the caller can call just Set(kHTMLFormat, "<b>Foo</b>") without ever
calling Set(kPlainTextFormat, "..."); ?

maybe:

// ..requires a plain-text representation to be available as well.
// If there isn't kPlainTextFormat data, don't put just the HTML
// representation, otherwise older apps may not be able to paste it.

[Peter Beverloo, 2013/10/25 15:29:37]

Done.

+    if (!ContainsKey(map_, kPlainTextFormat))
+      return;
+
+    ScopedJavaLocalRef<jstring> html = ConvertUTF8ToJavaString(env, data);
+    ScopedJavaLocalRef<jstring> text = ConvertUTF8ToJavaString(
+        env, map_[kPlainTextFormat].c_str());
+
+    DCHECK(html.obj() && text.obj());
+    Java_Clipboard_setHTMLText(
+        env, clipboard_manager_.obj(), html.obj(), text.obj());
   }
 }
 
 void ClipboardMap::Clear() {
   JNIEnv* env = AttachCurrentThread();
   base::AutoLock lock(lock_);
   map_.clear();
   Java_Clipboard_setText(env, clipboard_manager_.obj(), NULL);
 }
 
@@ skipping 294 matching lines @@
                           const char* data_data, size_t data_len) {
   g_map.Get().Set(format.data(), std::string(data_data, data_len));
 }
 
 // See clipboard_android_initialization.h for more information.
 bool RegisterClipboardAndroid(JNIEnv* env) {
   return RegisterNativesImpl(env);
 }
 
 } // namespace ui