Newsletter
Remote desktop client apps aren’t something that everyone has a use for, but they can come in handy from time to time when you may be away from your laptop or desktop and need to either initiate a download, move a file from local storage to the cloud or really anything else that you could normally only do from the computer itself. Google offers their own remote desktop client called Chrome Remote Desktop, and as of today they have just updated the app, bringing it forward to version 49 with a collection of new features, improvements, bug fixes and a brand-new user interface design to look forward to.
While the new UI design, rather the new look of the app, is the first thing that most people will notice, it isn’t the only thing worth mentioning about the update. Having said that, the new UI style wraps Chrome Remote Desktop in a material design look that has and should have become pretty familiar to most users at this point. As part of the UI change, Google has tweaked a couple of things that users will be able to see visually. The slide-out menu from the left side of the screen now shows the header with the image backdrop like any other material design app, and host PC’s that you have in your list now show their status. For example, if a host PC that a user is trying to remote into is offline the list will now display that with text as opposed to simply having just a grayed out icon.
The authentication menu now also shows up with blue color accents to match the color scheme of the application. A small change, but one that keeps the overall design unified. Also new in this version of Chrome Remote Desktop is that the app enters into immersive mode immediately after connecting to a host PC which wasn’t the case before as users had to enable immersive mode. There is also now the option to move between mouse mode, and a new touch mode which uses a single and double tap to left click and right click respectively. Whether or not you’re currently a Chrome Remote Desktop user, the update appears to be live in the Play Store for all.
