Windows 11 offers a handy new feature that makes connecting your PC to a mobile device and having that device operate as a Wi-Fi hotspot much more convenient, while the capability is still in testing and currently only works with Samsung cellphones.
The Phone Link app (formerly Your Phone), which is included in preview build 25231 in the Dev Channel, makes it possible to immediately connect to your phone’s hotspot (early testing channel for Windows Insiders).
If the device is within range, you can quickly connect to your handset’s hotspot simply hitting a button, without touching your phone or fiddling with any hotspot settings, entering passwords, or doing anything else.
As previously stated, a Samsung mobile running One UI 4.1.1+ is required, and your PC must be Bluetooth-enabled. Of course, Windows 11 preview build 25231 and the Phone Link desktop programme version 1.22082.111.0 are also requirements (or better).
See Microsoft’s blog post(opens in new tab) on the new build for further information on how to set it all up. It also outlines the other changes the software giant has made here, most of which are bug fixes (and known issues).
Analysis: Microsoft, please make this available for phones other than Samsung.
This is an incredibly clever and practical move by Phone Link to reduce the inconvenience of using your phone as a hotspot for your Windows 11 computer.
You might utilise the instant hotspot frequently in situations where you want to use your Windows 11 laptop with your smartphone’s cellular connection, such as when you’re out and about. Or perhaps you’re at home and the broadband goes out; in that case, you might want to connect to your mobile broadband instead, which you can accomplish quickly and easily with the help of this tool (until your full-fat broadband comes back on).
The fact that it’s a Samsung-only feature is obviously annoying, but for Phone Link users, that specific roadblock is nothing new, as functionality has frequently been linked to Samsung handsets only in the past.
When will other phones be able to use instant hotspot? We are unsure. As previously noted, this is the early testing channel, so there’s a chance the feature won’t make it into the final version of Windows 11. Although it seems odd in this instance, who knows.
Anyway, let’s hope this one gets more support than just Samsung smartphones. It certainly seems silly that you can’t use this feature on Microsoft’s own Surface Duo 2, which runs Android, but maybe that will change soon enough.
