Windows 11 It has a neat new feature that allows your PC to be connected to a mobile phone more conveniently with the latter acting as a Wi-Fi hotspot, although the functionality is now being tested, and only works with Samsung smart phones.
The ability to instantly access your phone’s hotspot is facilitated by phone link app (Previously known as Your Phone), it was introduced in Preview build 25231 in the Dev Channel (Windows Insiders Early Testing Channel).
Instant Hotspot means you can very quickly connect to your device’s hotspot with just the click of a button – assuming the device is in range – without having to touch your phone or fiddle with any hotspot settings, type passwords etc.
As mentioned, you need a Samsung device – running One UI 4.1.1+ to be exact – and your computer must support Bluetooth. You also need to be running the new preview build of Windows 11 25231, of course, and have Phone Link desktop app version v1.22082.111.0 (or better).
For more details on how to set it all up, see Microsoft Blog Posts (Opens in a new tab) In a new build that lists more other tweaks the software giant has made here, which are basically bug fixes (and known issues).
Analysis: Please, Microsoft, bring this to other phones besides Samsung
This is a really smart and convenient touch of Phone Link to reduce the hassle of using your phone as a hotspot for your Windows 11 device.
Common scenarios when you can take advantage of the instant hotspot, for example, when you are abroad, and want to use your Windows 11 laptop with cellular connection to your smartphone. Or, maybe you’re at home and the broadband goes down – you may then want to hop on mobile broadband instead with your phone, and you can do so instantly without any fuss with this feature (even Full fat broadband I come back).
The obvious inconvenience here is that it’s a Samsung-only feature, but for Phone Link users, this specific drawback is nothing new, as functionality has been linked to Samsung devices exclusively in the past several times.
When will the instant hotspot come for other phones? we do not know. In fact, this is the early testing channel as noted above, so there is a chance that the feature will be abandoned before the Windows 11 release cutoff is made. In this case, this seems unlikely, but who knows.
Anyway, fingers crossed for wider support from Samsung devices only with this one. It sure seems a little silly that you can’t take advantage of this ability on Microsoft’s Android SurfaceDuo 2But I hope that will change soon enough.
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