IT support is no longer just a help desk. Technicians address lander problems from home offices, field sites, or on the go. Out of hotel rooms, on-call engineers work to troubleshoot production systems. IT managers approve escalations from anywhere away from their main workstation. In all of these cases, launching and controlling remote support sessions from a smartphone or tablet has transitioned from a nice to have capability to an operational necessity.
In this report, we profile five methods of remote support with real mobile client capability and assess the following for each: how well does the vendor account for the mobile experience to administrators, how secure are sessions initiated from a mobile device, and what compromises organizations should be prepared to make when implementing or scaling to engineer meaningful workflows around platforms supporting the mobile client.
Before comparing platforms, a grounding in what mobile-capable remote support actually requires across different use cases helps sharpen the evaluation. An overview of remote support software on mobile devices covers how mobile client capabilities vary across platforms and what IT teams should look for when mobile support is a primary workflow rather than an occasional workaround.
The Importance of Mobile Remote Support for IT Teams
In parallel with flexible work, the expectation that IT support can happen from everywhere has expanded. Due to widespread adoption of mobile-first work models and beyond bring-your-own-device policies, the demand for mobile devices within enterprise IT workflows has increased significantly. Enterprise mobility adoption research outlines how the shift from traditional office models to distributed, mobile-enabled work across global organizations has blossomed into the essential operational requirement for mobile access to corporate tools as opposed to a luxury enhancement. Some research data on enterprise mobile workforce trends corroborates this trajectory, with the enterprise mobility market projected to rise at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 16% as organizations recognize the need for anytime, anywhere access not only to data but also support capabilities.
From an IT department perspective, this means that their remote support software must operate in both directions on mobile: technicians need to initiate and manage support sessions out of mobile devices; and in some cases, the same holds true for end users connecting from mobile endpoints.
Mobile-initiated support sessions carry security risks tread carefully. The attack surface of remote support is expanded by the mobile devices that are often used to conduct these sessions. It is also possible that a technician device can be compromised and used to gain access to internal endpoints. This makes the mobile session authentication controls, international multi-factor, mobile session logging and device-level access policies as much a part of the connection features. The mobile device security risks resource from Fortinet gives us good grounding in the types of threats mobile devices are prone to and the layered nature of controls organizations should impose, which maps so directly into evaluating how well remote support platforms secure their mobile clients.
Splashtop
Splashtop provides native mobile applications for both iOS and Android, allowing technicians to launch and control full remote support sessions from their smartphone or tablet. The mobile client supports light attended and unattended session modes to emulate the core capabilities of an agent during a session on a portable device where the technician typically has access to their desktop application as well.
Splashtop mobile app makes session initiation very simple. Technicians authenticate, view the list of devices that are enrolled and connect to the relevant endpoint in a single step. When a mobile device is connected, the session streams the display of the remote device onto the mobile screen and allows technicians to control and move seamlessly from touch-based input gestures on mobile screen to natural mouse-and-keyboard interactions in the remote machine.
Mobile sessions are secured in the same way as desktop sessions. Multi-factor authentication is needed to log in, and session activity is logged with the full identity of the technician and connection metadata. SSO integration with identity providers guarantees the same access safeguards surrounding the remote support software on mobile devices are also enforced on the mobile application.
Mobile sessions are secured in the same way as desktop sessions. Multi-factor authentication is needed to log in, and session activity is logged with the full identity of the technician and connection metadata. SSO integration with identity providers guarantees the same access safeguards surrounding the remote support environment are also enforced on the mobile application.
The Splashtop mobile application provides an end-to-end experience, allowing on-call engineers to respond to critical alerts from their devices and letting IT managers track active sessions remotely.
RemotePC
RemotePC has client applications for both iOS and Android which ask technicians to remote into attended devices from mobile devices. After getting all devices on board at the endpoint with their desktop agent, it has a clean and non-confusing interface that needs very little setup to connect.
The mobile session experience covers the key core support scenarios of fetching and controlling a remote desktop, transferring files between the mobile device and that remote endpoint, conducting basic system operations. Multi-touch input allows for navigation controls through the remote session, and the interface scales to fit the mobile screen.
When mobile remote support isn’t an integral part of IT teams’ workflows, but just a secondary consideration, think about after-hours alerts when you’re away from your desk. RemotePC manages nicely through its mobile client. Mobile has a more limited feature set compared to the desktop client, so technicians performing complex diagnostic tasks or specific workflows may prefer switching to a desktop session once an initial assessment from mobile has been conducted.
It provides support for two-factor authentication and keeps session records in the account history of the mobile and desktop interface.
RealVNC Connect
RealVNC Connect has both iOS and Android mobile clients, but it also stands out because it is based on the VNC protocol with cross-platform endpoints, giving you cross-platform support across Windows, macOS, Linux and Raspberry Pi. That cross-platform reach goes all to the client, allowing technicians to connect across iOS or Android to any of the supported endpoint types.
The remote desktop will be rendered to the mobile interface and input at the mobile device based on touch events for navigation. The device’s software keyboard is supported for keyboard input, while the application framework provides common session controls via the application toolbar. Depending on the product tier, features such as file transfer and/or additional session capabilities.
In environments that deliver heterogeneous management such as with embedded systems, non-standard hardware or Linux-based endpoints the protocol compatibility provided by RealVNC proves its worth by making it a strong contender where mobile clients must address device types that other platforms might otherwise fail to cover.
In addition to its standard cloud-managed mode, RealVNC Connect also has some on-premises deployment options for organizations with data residency requirements that want a say in where connection brokering happens.
NinjaOne
NinjaOne offers mobile client apps for RMM that enable IT technicians and administrators to access the platform’s remote support and RMM features from iOS and Android devices. The device inventory, the alert management, and remote sessions that can be initiated on enrolled endpoints are all accessible through an app.
The mobile UI is positioned not only for working on monitoring and triage, but also as for a higher-level support. This also allows Device health reviews, patch status checks, acknowledgment of alerts and the ability to start remote sessions all from the same mobile interface which is extremely efficient when on-call engineers need to quickly check the basic state of devices in order to determine which issues need further remedial action: NinjaOne’s standout mobile client.
When the end-user initiates a remote session from the mobile client, it establishes connectivity to the enrolled endpoint thereby streaming the remote display for interactive support. Of course, the session capability set on mobile corresponds to the platform standard remote support features so that all activity is recorded in one centralized audit trail from where information can be monitored and analyzed.
For those IT departments who leverage NinjaOne as their central RMM platform, the mobile client brings the operational visibility and response capabilities of the larger platform wherever a technician is; this can be especially useful for lean IT teams that manage large device estates without round-the-clock staffing.
AnyViewer
Free mobile client: AnyViewer offers client applications for iOS and Android to allow a mobile device to connect to an enrolled Windows device. Setup is simple and with device enrollment, basic unattended access sessions can be initiated from the app.
The mobile session experience encompasses the most basic use case: accessing and operating a remote Windows desktop using a smartphone or tablet. Transfer of files is also supported, and the interface is easy for end-users who have little hands-on exposure to working with technology.
For small IT teams or even individual practitioners who need occasional mobile remote access and live on a mostly Windows device estate, the AnyViewer mobile client covers their main scenario. Cross-platform support for the platform is also limited (compared to the enterprise-grade alternatives profiled above) too, as mobile connectivity is only available for Windows remote endpoints instead of offering availability across a wider range of Operating Systems that other platforms can provide.
IT departments assessing AnyViewer for support workflows that extend to mobile need to ensure tentatively targeted endpoint types can be reached from mobile before investing in a larger scale deployment.
Assessing Mobile: What to Test
In fact, when testing remote support platforms for mobile use, IT teams should look to recreate the specific scenarios technicians will encounter instead of generic demos. It has three key dimensions: session initiation speed from a mobile device over a realistic network connection (none, not high-speed Wi-Fi), touch input responsiveness during active sessions, and consistency of feature access between mobile and desktop clients.
Mobile access (each resource should check the needed authentication) Ensure that such MFA is applied equally to mobile logins as well as desktop logins, and ensures that the mobile sessions generate matching entries in the audit trail as desktop sessions. Platforms that consider mobile as a second class access channel with low security risk are creating a disconnect in the overall security posture of their remote support environment.
Lastly test session handoff workflows: if a tech is on mobile and wants to escalate to desktop client to get the full window experience for some more complicated piece of work, that should be seamless during the transfer meaning there will be no required end user action or tech needing to re-auth from scratch.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are remote support sessions initiated from a mobile device with the same safety level as those from a desktop?
With properly configured platforms, yes. Fundamental requirements include forcing multi-factor authentication for mobile logins, session-logging that collects the same level of detail on mobile-initiated sessions as desktop sessions and role-based access controls that are consistent regardless of client device. They are not all now on par with their desktop counterparts when it comes to security posture due to authentication exceptions from mobile access, incomplete audit trails for mobile sessions or other gaps in the risk chain.
Which mobile operating systems do remote support clients usually work on?
Professional remote support solutions usually include native clients for iOS and Android. The coverage quality and feature parity among different desktop clients will vary from platform to platform, so you should test this directly instead of relying on the feature list. While some platforms provide the full session capability on mobile, others restrict functionality to a subset of what the desktop client offers.
How can mobile remote support be best used by on-call IT engineers?
Mobile remote support is best utilized for first responder tasks: acknowledging alerts, checking device health, starting a session to determine the impact of an issue and doing simple remediation. When it comes to complex diagnostics, purpose-built tooling, or long troubleshooting sessions though, the move over to a desktop client is a more efficient solution. Define clear expectations around what support scenarios should be resolved directly on mobile versus those that should be escalated to a full desktop session.
