Samsung Galaxy phones are finally catching up with the rest of the Android world when it comes to seamless internet sharing. If you’ve ever wished your Samsung phone could share its internet connection with non-Samsung tablets as easily as it does with Galaxy tablets, you’re in luck. With Galaxy S25 series, Samsung has added support for Android’s Instant Hotspot feature, reports Android Authority.
Galaxy S25 finally adopts Android’s Instant Hotspot feature
Until now, Samsung devices used a feature called Auto Hotspot, which only worked between Galaxy phones, tablets, and laptops signed in with the same Samsung account. If you had a Samsung phone but a tablet from another brand, you had to manually turn on the hotspot and enter the password to connect. That wasn’t exactly rocket science, but still an extra step. Meanwhile, other Android phone brands already supported Google’s Instant Hotspot, which allowed users to connect their devices with just a tap.
Google’s Instant Hotspot is part of its Cross-Device Services, a set of features to make Android devices work better together. It lets you share your phone’s internet with other devices signed in with the same Google account. But for some reason, this feature was missing from Samsung phones since its launch. That changes with the Galaxy S25 series, which now fully supports Instant Hotspot.
Interestingly, Google confirms that only “S25 and newer” will be getting this upgrade. But Android Authority says some users who updated their older Galaxy devices to One UI 7.0 have reported seeing the Instant Hotspot feature pop up. This suggests that the software update, rather than just new hardware, might be the key to the feature for more Galaxy phones.
If you own a Samsung phone and a non-Samsung tablet, this update is good news. No more jumping through hoops just to connect to the internet. What do you think of this update?
