Google recently released an iOS app for Chrome Remote Desktop to let you control other PCs from your iPad or iPhone, but there’s still one thing missing from Chrome Remote Desktop’s arsenal. While you can access a Windows, Mac, or Linux PC from any device—including a Chromebook—you can’t actually gain remote access to a Chromebook.
That appears about to change, however, as Google is currently testing remote Chromebook access in the Chrome OS dev channel, according to a Google+ post from Chrome evangelist François Beaufort.
The impact on you at home: Adding Chromebook access to Chrome Remote Desktop was understandably a lower priority for Google. With Chromebooks being so cloud-centric and easy to use, there wasn’t as much reason to enable the feature on Google-powered laptops as compared to other PC platforms. Nevertheless, there are times when this feature can come in handy, such as providing support to new Chrome OS users or ad-hoc screen sharing.
Testing, testing
François Beaufort The new remote access feature at work on a Chromebook.
Chrome Remote Desktop is only being tested now in the developer channel, which means users on the regular update stream for Chrome OS won’t see it yet. It’s not clear when the feature might show up in stable builds, as some features appear within weeks of testing while others can linger for months.
With Beaufort talking about the feature, however, there’s a good chance the functionality will show up soon.
In the meantime, if you’re desperate for remote access to your Chromebook and don’t mind being a little daring with your laptop, you could switch over to the Chrome OS developer channel. Just know that the developer channel is likely to be buggy as it’s all about testing the latest and greatest features coming to Chrome OS.
To learn how to change Chrome OS channels, check out our tutorial.