TeamViewer Free – Access your Computer Remotely from your Phone

by Toni McQuilken Jul 30, 2011 12:19 PM – 7 Comments

Install

Teamviewer Free. Mobile and flexible: remotely access computers from your android device! Easily support friends and family when they have computer problems – no matter where you are. You can also benefit from gaining access to your private home computer to edit documents or use particular software while you are on the road.

Price: Free

Tested on: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
Content Rating: Everyone

AndroidTapp.com Android App Review:

Pros & Cons:

Pros

Quick and easy set-up
You can control your computer from your mobile device for quick access
Connecting is much easier than with some other solutions

Cons

You can’t copy files between the computer and mobile device

Features:

TeamViewer Free is the Android mobile client for the TeamViewer service. If you are using the app/service for non-commercial, personal reasons, then it is free. For commercial and/or business, however, you’ll need a license. As far as I could tell, the Android app will work with either version, depending on how your account is set up.

The service itself is very easy to install. On your computer, you download the software and install it, and it will allow you to set up things such as a password for that specific machine, as well as choose if you want to create an account, where you can store multiple “partners,” which is the term used to describe the systems you log in to. Creating the account is, again, very easy, but you can also choose not to create one, and simply use the client for the single machine you have it running on.

On the Android side, once you install the app, you get a screen to put in your partner ID and password. Both you’ll need to get from your computer itself – it should be up on a dialog box that pops up as soon as you finish setup. After that, it will run in your Windows tray, if you need to get that information again later.

Once you put in the ID and password, you’ll get a full version of your desktop. You can choose in the settings to show or hide your backgrounds for performance reasons, with the default being off. Along the bottom, you’ll have buttons for a mouse and keyboard, as well as to access the options menu and close out the connection completely. To scroll, you touch the screen and move the mouse around, which is far easier than some other software of this type I’ve tried, which required you to use a D-pad type of control system in the corner of the screen.

My one big complaint was that, while the official site said there was the ability to transfer files between machines, I couldn’t find a way to do it. I finally had to contact the company, and was told that, at the moment at least, file transfers aren’t supported on the mobile clients. This was a huge disappointment, since the single biggest reason for using a client like this, to my way of thinking, is to grab a file or files you forgot on another machine while on the go. Without the ability to download, it severely limits the usefulness of the app.

: TeamViewer Login

: TeamViewer My Computers

: Teamviewer History

: TeamViewer Log Out

: TeamViewer Remote Access

: TeamViewer PC Client

: TeamViewer Settings

: TeamViewer Help

Usefulness:

As I mentioned above, without file transfer abilities, the usefulness of this app is impacted in a major way. Sure, it’s great to see the files or screens you need, but if you can’t grab them, what’s the point? If you just want to give a presentation, or show someone something you left on your machine, then this is a great way to do it, but without that file transfer, it’s of very limited use.

Ease of Use:

I was impressed with how easy this service and app was to set up. The computer client walked me through step-by-step, and the Android client connected right away once I had the ID and password. I didn’t feel like I had to jump through technological hoops to get it all working, which was a really nice surprise, since this type of software can be incredibly complicated to set up at times.

Frequently Used:

Again, because of the lack of file transfer abilities, this isn’t going to get as much use as it could. If you’re one of the people who just wants to be able to view a screen, such as doing tech support for someone remotely – then this will be a life saver. For the casual user, however, it probably won’t see much use.

Interface:

The interface is clean in both the computer and Android clients, which was nice to see and easy to use. Once you log in, you’re looking at a mirror of your own desktop – so your own interface will be whatever you prefer to work with. I like that the tools you use, such as the mouse and keyboard, are in a strip at the bottom that is very unobtrusive, leaving you with most of the screen real estate for what you’re actually working on.

AndroidTapp.com Rating

AndroidTapp.com Rating! (4.0 out of 5)

Should you Download TeamViewer Free? This is an app and service to keep an eye on. It has a lot of great potential, but is lacking in the key functionality department with the omission of file transfers. However, if you just need an app to view screens remotely, or maybe remote diagnosis, then this is worth checking out, since it’s the easiest to setup, and fastest, app of its type that I’ve tried to date.

Developer: TeamViewer GmbH

Tags: Android App, Android Apps, Android Remote Desktop Publishing, AndroidTapp.com App Review, Remote Desktop Client, Remote Desktop Publishing, Remote RDP, TeamViewer, TeamViewer Free

Categorised in: Business, Multimedia, Productivity

7 Comments

By AllSanDiegoComputerRepair on July 31, 2011 at 1:32 am:

might try this… but it would be tough to do any “real” work on a cell ph screen, even a big smartphone screen is awfully cramped

i had been using netviewer till citrix bought them – now i’m pretty much solely on teamviewer

Reply
By exceptnothing on July 31, 2011 at 4:04 am:

http://www.exceptnothing.com/2011/07/move-files-from-phone-memory-and-sd.html Move files from Phone Memory to Memory Card in Android 2.1 and Android 2.2

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By AGVirt on July 31, 2011 at 7:10 am:

Another option for remote access to Windows apps from mobile devices is Ericom AccessToGo, a free RDP client for iPad, iPhone and Android devices. If you also want to speed up RDP, you can use AccessToGo with Ericom’s Blaze server (a commercial, not free product). That makes AccessToGo the fastest RDP client for mobile devices for working with graphic applications over a remote connection.

For more information about AccessToGo, visit:
http://www.ericom.com/mobile.asp?URL_ID=708

Reply
By blashandroid on July 31, 2011 at 10:06 am:

What are the permissions/access required by this application?

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By Steve on February 16, 2012 at 10:02 am:

In team viewer how would I give control to my mobile device if I’m away from pc and not there to click allow? Is there a way to setup my mobile as a safe or access allowed device? Any help would be appreciated,

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By Steve on February 16, 2012 at 11:28 am:

Hi, been trying to figure out how I would gain control of my pc from my handheld when I am not at home. When I connect, I can only view the desktop but when I try to take control it wants me to approve it from the home PC. There must be a way I’m just missing something, any help would be great. Thanks.

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By Helpfulnick on March 11, 2012 at 7:54 pm:

On the PC set a password for Teamviewer by right clicking the active icon in the task bar and left clicking setup for unattended access. Once you set a manual password it will allow you access so long as your firewall is not blocking.

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