Android users can now access PC on mobile devices through Chrome

Google may have made remote access more likely for companies with lots of Android users. According to the official post from the Chrome team, users of this browser will now be able to download an app that gives them access to their main computer or laptop wherever they are.

As the post describes, this seems to be expanding upon the previous remote access options presented by the company, and functions in a similar way, requiring users to download apps from the official online store.

Writing for PC World, Ryan Whitwam makes it sound like this system is the kind of smooth bridge between two different ports of access that PC and Droid users might need. On the other hand, he also notes that the system is "not intuitive at all" and could require a bit of learning curve to figure out fully.

"While there are a few weird things about the Chrome Remote Desktop app, it is very smooth and treats multiple monitors like one large desktop," he writes. "That's certainly preferable to constantly switching between them."

Sarah Perez of Tech Crunch points out another interesting wrinkle to this announcement, though: the competition that may be present due to Amazon's recently launched remote access system called Amazon Workspaces. Among the many devices that this system is primed to work on is, indeed, Android.

But many organizations have found that virtual access is awkward and difficult to use, while testing similar solutions, especially when function keys are a common requirement such as with mainframe terminal emulators.  For those organizations, a clean web browser terminal emulator tuned to the Chrome or Mobile environment is preferable.