Securely access your computers from your iOS device

Jan 13, 2015 14:17 GMT  ·  By

Google this week rolled out one of its best services yet for iOS customers, a remote-computing solution that enables any iPhone or iPad user to control their home or work PC from the iDevice.

Available as a free download from the iTunes Store, Chrome Remote Desktop is easy to set up and use – despite requiring the user to undertake numerous steps before he / she gets up and running with the software. Users need to also download a desktop counterpart from the Chrome Web Store to establish their connection.

State-of-the-art interface

Chrome Remote Desktop is simple and clean. There’s virtually no learning curve, everything is just there, ready to be used. You just select your Mac or PC from the list of connected computers, and boom! you’re in. Four buttons reside at the top of the UI – mouse, keyboard, fullscreen, and options.

The full-screen experience is best on iPhone 6 Plus and iPad, but even smaller screens can take advantage of the Chrome Remote Desktop app thanks to the ability to zoom in and expand the view with pinching.

Near-instant response

The response time between the iOS device and PC is incredibly brief, taking under half a second for the desktop to reflect the movements on the mobile device. This, of course, depends on how strong your internet connection is.

The mouse cursor is incredibly easy to move about using gestures, while the keyboard can be brought up with a simple tap of the appropriate button in the above menubar. To eliminate it from view, just hit the button in the low-right-hand corner on the keyboard.

The setup does take up a fair amount of resources, though. That goes both for iOS and the desktop computer.

To use it on more than one computer, you’ll need to set up remote access using the Chrome Remote Desktop app from Chrome Web Store on each of these systems. When you’re done with that, simply launch the app on your iOS device and tap on any of your online computers to connect. Download Chrome Remote Desktop for free right now and give it a go.

Chrome Remote Desktop screenshots (8 Images)

Chrome Remote Desktop running on iPhone 6 Plus
Your desktop alerts you that it is now engaged with Chrome Remote DesktopRequires PIN entry for security reasons
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