How to use your phone as a hotspot
If you’re taking your laptop away from the safe environs of your home or office desk and still want to stay online, you’ve got a couple of choices (assuming it doesn’t have cellular connectivity built in): hunt around for a Wi-Fi network you can connect to or run a Wi-Fi hotspot from your phone.
Running a hotspot from your phone comes with advantages and disadvantages. It’s more secure than a public Wi-Fi network, as you’re in charge, and you may well get better upload and download speeds, too — though this will, of course, depend on the 4G and 5G coverage in your part of the world. On the downside, you may be limited in terms of your data allowance, and battery life on your phone will take a hit.
If you want to take the mobile hotspot route, here’s how to do it.
Set up a hotspot on a Pixel
With Android devices, as always, the exact steps vary depending on the manufacturer. These are the steps for using a Pixel device with Android 15:
- Open Settings on Android.
- Choose Network & Internet > Hotspot & tethering.
- You can toggle Wi-Fi hotspot from here to enable it, but if you’ve never used the hotspot before, tap on it to set your options.
- You’ll see options to set …