New Nexus, Pixel Feature Instant Tethering Follows Technology From Apple’s Mac, iPhone Shared Internet Functionality

When you need instant internet connection but there’s no WiFi network from the establishments around you, your phone’s mobile hotspot capability is the tool you can rely on. However, setting up your phone’s hotspot tends to be a little tedious. Google is addressing this issue with its new Android-only feature that’s coming first to Nexus and Pixel devices.

According to Android Police, Google is rolling out Google Play Services 10.2, a software update that comes with a feature called Instant Tethering. Based on its name alone, it’s pretty clear that this feature provides Android users with a means to instantly launch the tethering functionality of their phones. And that’s what it really does.

When a device needs WiFi connection, one does not need to unlock his or her phone and do the necessary steps to the mobile hotspot. The device can just connect to a phone via Bluetooth and instantly set up WIFI without going to Settings. If the phone’s Bluetooth is already turned on, there wouldn’t be a need to unlock it at all.

The Verge reports that this feature is similar to what Apple did to its Mac and iPhones. Mac users do not need to open their iPhone and manually setup the device to launch tethering. From the Mac, one can directly have access to the internet by launching the mobile hotspot of the iPhone. There’s a WiFi icon in the menu bar of Mac devices that connects and controls the iPhone’s mobile tethering switch

When it comes to Google’s Instant Tethering, only devices with a single Google account can connect and instantly access tethering from each other. Thus, an Android tablet that needs internet access can only connect and launch a phone’s tethering functionality if the latter is logged on to the same Google account.

Instant Tethering is reportedly rolling out for Nexus and Pixel devices with Android Nougat 7.1.1 OS first before coming to many other Android-running devices. The feature is currently being tested for other devices. Once testing is over, its availability could widen.