How To Turn Your Android Phone's Hotspot On Without Opening Your Phone
Turning on your Android phone's hotspot in a sticky situation can be an absolute lifesaver, such as when working on a project in a public setting where Wi-Fi isn't completely secure (or potentially worse, the access is restricted), or when dealing with an unstable home network. In situations like that, you will want to ensure you have a reliable hotspot source ready when needed.
If your mobile plan includes data, your phone can already be used as a great hotspot source for any device with Wi-Fi capabilities. However, using it can actively drain the battery, thus cutting down the time with your connection. Luckily, there are simple workarounds that access a hotspot without managing it from your phone. Depending on the devices you own, you can turn on built-in features like instant hotspot or tethering to enable a primarily hands-free experience from your phone. It does require some setup beforehand, a compatible OS software, and an active Google account to use.
Enable instant tethering on your Android phone and Chromebook
Chromebooks are portable, but more importantly, they are powerful, productive machines that you can bring pretty much anywhere. This lightweight laptop relies on a stable internet connection to access its cloud services, like saving your Google Docs or Sheets to your Google Drive. Chromebooks are designed to work with online connectivity: Even if many of its apps have offline support, you would still need to set this up beforehand — a sudden power outage could easily spoil those plans.
Instant Tethering is a Chrome OS feature that works with newer Chromebooks (version 71 and later) and Android phones on Android 8 and later. The features work similarly to macOS Tahoe's automatic hotspot connection for your MacBook and iPhone. Both features provide a hands-free experience and don't require you to open your devices each time you want to connect to your mobile hotspot.
To enable instant tethering between your Chromebook and Android phone, turn both devices on and ensure they are both connected to the same Google account, then open your Android phone and go to Settings > Network & internet (or a similar network option) > Hotspot & tethering, then toggle on instant tethering. On your Chromebook, look for the notification that asks you to connect to your hotspot. The notification should appear after your Chromebook loses its Wi-Fi access point and will automatically connect to your phone's mobile hotspot without entering a password or manually turning it on from your device.
Use cross-device internet sharing or instant hotspot
Similar to the instant tethering feature, the cross-device internet sharing or instant hotspot option allows compatible devices to connect to a hotspot when it is enabled beforehand. Compatible devices, like Android phones and tablets, can turn on your phone's hotspot and connect to it using your other nearby devices. It does this when the device loses connection, searching for the cellular connection linked to the same Google account.
To use this feature, you need to be on Android 11 or later, have Bluetooth enabled, keep your devices in close proximity, and be signed in to the same Google account between those devices. The feature lets you limit access to your phone by being able to connect to the hotspot on any device with cross-device internet sharing enabled. The feature is also easy to set up, but it requires manually setting up each device you want to use cross-device services with.
Samsung devices are mostly excluded from this list because they have their own proprietary feature known as "Auto HotSpot." However, this seems to be changing, as the Samsung Galaxy S25 series is compatible with Google's instant hotspot feature. Sources suggest this is due to One UI 7, so if you have a Samsung device on One UI 7 or later, check whether the instant hotspot/cross-device feature is available. Otherwise, you can turn on instant hotspot or cross-device internet sharing by opening your settings, tapping Google, then selecting Devices & sharing, and toggling on Cross-device services. Once you've created a device group, toggle on internet sharing — voilà, you can now remotely manage your connection via any device registered in your group.