What Exactly Is Bluetooth Tethering And When Should You Use It?

Almost every smartphone can share its data connection, transforming it into a portable internet gateway for your other gadgets. While most people hungrily search for Wi-Fi hotspots when they need to get online, you actually have another option. It's one that usually goes completely unnoticed: Bluetooth tethering. This option accomplishes the exact same goal of connecting your laptop to the internet, but it uses the short-range wireless standard instead.

Think of a Wi-Fi hotspot as setting up a miniature, temporary router when you're at a coffee shop or airport. It's fast and can handle multiple devices, but it demands an immense amount of power from your smartphone (and mobile hotspots might not be as reliable as you think). Bluetooth tethering, on the other hand, is like a simpler invisible wire between just two devices. By pairing your smartphone with another device via Bluetooth tethering, the internet connection is seamlessly passed along through your phone without the heavy lifting required to broadcast a full Wi-Fi network.

Setting this up requires just a few taps. On an iPhone, navigate to Settings, select Personal Hotspot, and toggle the switch to allow others to join, making sure Bluetooth is active. For Android users, open the Settings app, tap Network and Internet, navigate to Hotspot and Tethering, and flip the Bluetooth tethering switch on. Once activated on your phone, simply pair the other device you want to use just like you normally would via Bluetooth. The internet connection will instantly bridge across.

The single biggest advantage of using Bluetooth tethering over a garden-variety Wi-Fi hotspot comes down to battery preservation. Broadcasting a Wi-Fi signal requires a smartphone to constantly be transmitting in the nearby area. This process can cause your phone to heat up and its battery percentage to plummet way faster than you'd ever want it to. Conversely, more recent Bluetooth technology is optimized for lower power consumption. It'll sip battery life more slowly, letting your phone share its cellular connection for hours on end without plugging it into a wall outlet.

Security is another area where Bluetooth tethering outshines the alternatives. When a Wi-Fi hotspot is activated, the network name is broadcast to every device in the nearby vicinity. The problem is that, even with strong password protection, broadcasting an active network can invite potential security vulnerabilities in public places. In contrast, Bluetooth tethering operates strictly on a one-to-one paired connection. And because both devices must authenticate with each other beforehand, the connection remains mostly hidden and unusable by strangers sitting at the next table over.

This discreet connection means malicious actors can't as easily sniff out the network or attempt brute-force password attacks. Your data stays locked between your paired smartphone and the receiving computer. For remote workers who often set up shop in bustling train stations or cafes, this added layer of security provides a measure of peace of mind.

Despite the solid security perks and lack of battery drain, Bluetooth tethering isn't a flawless replacement for a Wi-Fi hotspot. The major trade-off is raw speed: Wi-Fi can be a hundred or more times faster than Bluetooth.  Plus, Bluetooth simply doesn't have the bandwidth capacity to handle heavy data transfers. So, while a Wi-Fi connection can easily stream high-def movies or download huge files at fast speeds, a connection via Bluetooth just won't be able to push data quickly.

This creates a noticeable bottleneck. As such, Bluetooth tethering should really only be used for low-bandwidth tasks needing a steady, long-lasting connection. Reading news articles, sending emails (without huge attachments), writing a Word document, or chatting with a coworker over Slack are the kinds of tasks that a Bluetooth connection can handle fine. A laptop can stay tethered to a phone in a backpack all afternoon, for example, and your smartphone's battery should barely register the strain by the time you're done. There are also gadgets that make traveling without Wi-Fi easier, so combining those with Bluetooth tethering can come in handy when you're on the go and away from a stable Wi-Fi connection.

On the flip side, if you need to do more intensive tasks like jump onto a video call, download chunky email attachments, or play AAA-title games with your friends, a Wi-Fi connection is a better choice. There are other disadvantages to using Bluetooth for everything beyond battery drain and bandwidth issues, like unexpected drops or quirky pairing problems. Ultimately, knowing when to use Bluetooth tethering makes it easy for you to stay connected and safely get basic work done when you're away from home.