Raspberry Pi Connect was released as beta software earlier this year, allowing you to remotely access Pi systems with just a web browser. Now, a few more improvements are rolling out.

Raspberry Pi confirmed in a blog post today that the latest release of Raspberry Pi OS (which was primarily focused on desktop compositor improvements) has a new panel for accessing and configuring the remote desktop software. You can now click the Raspberry Pi Connect icon in the top menu bar to turn the service on or off, change remote shell and desktop access, and access help documentation.

The blog post explains, “Since the launch of our public beta with screen sharing back in May, and the addition of remote shell access and support for older Raspberry Pi devices in June, we’ve been working on improving support and performance on as many Raspberry Pi devices as possible — from Raspberry Pi Zero to Raspberry Pi 5 — both when using Raspberry Pi OS with desktop and our Lite version.”

Raspberry Pi Connect is still turned off by default, and you can flip it on from the menu bar or by running the “rpi-connect on” command from the terminal. Once you set up a free Raspberry Pi Connect account, you’ll be able to access your Pi’s desktop and terminal from anywhere in the world, straight from your web browser.

You could already remotely control a Raspberry Pi device with VNC and SSH servers, but Raspberry Pi Connect is intended to be a simpler option that works without extra setup. It’s especially handy that all you need is a web browser, and you don’t need to configure a local VPN and/or port forwarding for access outside your local network.

Raspberry Pi also mentioned, “We’ve heard from lots of users about the features they’d most like to see next, and we’ve tried to prioritise the things that will bring the largest improvements in functionality to the largest number of users. Keep an eye on this blog to see our next updates.”

Source: Raspberry Pi Blog