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Google now lets you access your computer through Android with Chrome Remote Desktop

Google now lets you access your computer through Android with Chrome Remote Desktop

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Google's Chrome Remote Desktop service, first launched in 2011, is coming to mobile. Today, the company released an Android app that will let users access their desktop computers, whether through a Chrome web app for Mac, PC, and Linux or through Chrome OS itself. Once you've set up your primary machine, you can launch the Android app to connect to it. GigaOm reported a few days ago that the app was in beta testing, but it's now available to anyone with an Android phone or tablet, though doing much with the former will be a little cramped. There's no precise date given for an iOS version, but Google says it will be coming later this year.

Since releasing Chrome Remote Desktop, Google has increasingly added ways to connect desktop computers with other devices. Hangouts got a remote desktop feature in mid-2013, and the Chromecast dongle pulls Chrome tabs onto a TV with a minimum of hassle. Outside its ecosystem, other companies have offered similar apps, including Microsoft, which added native remote desktop support in Windows 8 and released apps for both iOS and Android in late 2013.