Chrome Remote Desktop for iPhone is gone: how to reach your Mac now

By Frank Gasparovic · November 10, 2026

If you search "control my Mac from my iPhone", a lot of the guides that come up still tell you to install Chrome Remote Desktop on both devices. That advice is out of date. Google stopped the Chrome Remote Desktop app for iPhone and iPad in 2025, and it isn't in the App Store anymore. If you still have it on an old phone it may keep limping along, but you can't download it again on a new one.

The good news is your Mac never needed it. macOS has had a remote desktop server built in for years, and it's probably sitting there switched off. Here's what happened and what I'd do instead.

What happened to Chrome Remote Desktop on iOS

In September 2025 a Chrome Community Manager confirmed on Google's help forum that the iOS app was being discontinued, and pointed people to the web version instead (PiunikaWeb covered it at the time). The Android app is still around. On the App Store side, a lookup of the old app's ID returns nothing as of November 10, 2026.

So the guides that rank for this aren't lying on purpose, they just haven't been updated. A step that says "download Chrome Remote Desktop from the App Store" is a dead end now.

The Mac already has a remote desktop server

Every Mac ships with Screen Sharing. It's the same thing that lets one Mac see and control another over the network, and under the hood it speaks VNC, a standard protocol lots of apps understand. Turning it on takes about a minute:

Open System Settings › General › Sharing.
Turn on Screen Sharing.
Click the ⓘ next to it and check that your user is allowed.

That's the whole Mac side. No helper app, no Google account, nothing running in the menu bar. If Screen Sharing is greyed out, Remote Management is on in the same list, and that already includes screen sharing, so you're fine.

The catch is that Apple only makes the Screen Sharing client for the Mac. There's no Apple app for iPhone or iPad that connects to it, so you need a third-party client on the phone side.

Pick a client for your iPhone or iPad

You have two broad options.

A client for the Mac's own Screen Sharing. These connect straight to the built-in server, so there's nothing to install on the Mac. You sign in with the same name and password you use to log in to the Mac. Twinpane, the app I build, is one of these, and there are several others on the App Store.
A full remote access service. TeamViewer, AnyDesk, Splashtop and similar apps put their own host app on the Mac and usually want an account. They're a good fit if you also need to reach Windows PCs, or you want their cloud relay so you never think about networking.

If you were happy with Chrome Remote Desktop, you probably liked that it was free-ish, simple and didn't need much setup. The first option is the closest to that feeling, and it has one less moving part, since you're not adding anything to the Mac at all.

Connecting at home

On the same Wi-Fi, a Screen Sharing client finds the Mac through Bonjour, the same way AirPlay speakers show up. In Twinpane the Mac appears in the list by name. Tap it, sign in with your Mac account, and you're looking at your desktop.

If it doesn't show up, add it by its IP address (on the Mac: System Settings › Wi-Fi › Details), and on the iPhone make sure the app is allowed under Settings › Privacy & Security › Local Network.

Connecting from anywhere

This is the part Chrome Remote Desktop handled for you, because Google relayed the connection. Screen Sharing only listens on your own network, and please don't open it to the internet with port forwarding. Two safe ways to reach it from outside:

Tailscale. Install it on the Mac and the iPhone, sign in to the same account, and the two can talk as if they were on the same Wi-Fi. Connect to the Mac's Tailscale name. It's free for personal use. Twinpane can list the Macs in your tailnet so you don't have to type anything.
An SSH tunnel. If you already reach your Mac over SSH (turn on Remote Login in the same Sharing settings), a client can tunnel Screen Sharing through it. In Twinpane that's the Connect Through SSH switch when you edit a Mac.

One gotcha either way: the Mac has to be awake and reachable. Turn on Wake for network access under System Settings › Energy (or Battery › Options on a laptop), and keep in mind that after a reboot with FileVault on, the Mac sits at a pre-boot unlock screen that nothing can reach over the network until someone types the password on it.

What you get that Chrome Remote Desktop didn't have

Going through Apple's own server has a few nice side effects. The picture comes from the same adaptive encoder the Mac uses for Mac-to-Mac sharing, so scrolling feels smoother than plain VNC. You log in with your real Mac account instead of a separate PIN. And because nothing extra is installed, there's nothing to update on the Mac or break after a macOS upgrade.

In Twinpane specifically, I added the things I missed on the phone: a keyboard that pops up when you click into a text field with Command, Option, Control and arrow keys above it, a clipboard that syncs both ways with the Mac, and unlocking a locked Mac from the Keychain (behind Face ID if you want). It also works with Siri and Shortcuts, and on iPad you can open more than one Mac in separate windows.

What it doesn't do, to be upfront: no sound from the Mac and no file transfer. If you need those, one of the full remote access services is the better pick.

If the Mac still has the Chrome Remote Desktop host

You can leave it, since the web version still uses it from a computer browser. If you're done with it, remove it with Google's host uninstaller so it isn't running in the background for nothing. Screen Sharing doesn't care either way.

Twinpane is free to download with a 7-day free trial, then $2.99 a month in the US. Nothing to install on the Mac.