Yes, you read that right: USB redirection just got easier with Citrix Workspace app for Chrome!
Until now, you had to manually “add” your USB device to redirect it into your remote session. Either from the Connection Center or from the Toolbar, you had to click on the Add button in the USB dialog and then select your USB device from the list shown.
With automatic USB redirection support, now you can insert your USB device into your Chromebook and it gets redirected automatically into your remote session.
Admins need to enable USB redirection and whitelist USB devices from the Google admin console as before. After that, when the USB device is inserted into your Chromebook, it gets redirected automatically into your remote session.
While using Citrix Workspace app for Chrome in user or public mode, you have to manually add the USB device from the Toolbar or Connection Center for the first time. This gives permission to Citrix Workspace app for Chrome to access the USB device. You need to do this once per USB device per Chromebook. In public mode this has to be done once for every public session since Chrome OS wipes out all the local user data when the user ends the public session.
You may insert the USB device before or after session launch. If you have multiple remote sessions running when you insert the USB device, it will be redirected into the session in focus. If no session is in focus, it will not be redirected into any session. In this case you can either add the USB device manually into the session of your choice or you may keep the session of your choice in focus when you insert the USB device. Likewise even if it is a single session, it must be in focus when the USB device is inserted for auto redirection to happen.
In KIOSK mode no manual intervention is required. The whitelisted USB devices will always get redirected automatically when inserted.
This feature is supported on Chrome version 57 onwards.
Go check out this feature on the latest Citrix Workspace app for Chrome and let us know what you think. We’d love to hear from you!
