The Galaxy S25 Is Samsung’s First Phone To Support Android’s Instant Hotspot Feature

Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority

One of the best things about the Android ecosystem is that you have the freedom to pick and choose devices. You can buy a phone, tablet, and smartwatch from different companies, and they’ll generally work well together. Sometimes, there are features that you can only get if you buy devices from the same brand. If you want the ability to seamlessly share your Samsung phone’s Internet access with your tablet, for instance, you have to buy a Samsung tablet. Thankfully, that’s no longer true if you buy the Galaxy S25, as it’s Samsung’s first phone to support Android’s Instant Hotspot feature.

Besides the great deals that it offers, Samsung makes it really tempting to buy one of its tablets alongside one of its phones by building great cross-device software features that only work within the Samsung ecosystem. One such feature is called Auto Hotspot, which makes it incredibly easy to share the Internet connection of Samsung phones with other Samsung devices. Because Auto Hotspot is only available on Samsung devices, if you buy other Android tablets, you can’t use the feature. Instead, you have to manually enable the hotspot on your Samsung phone and connect to it from your Android tablet.

If you own an Android phone from any other brand, though, this isn’t an issue as you can take advantage of Android’s Instant Hotspot feature to share its Internet connection with your Android tablet. Instant Hotspot is part of Android’s Cross-Device Services, a suite of cross-device features available on Android devices via the Google Play Services app. Although Cross-Device Services is available on Samsung phones, Instant Hotspot has been missing on Samsung devices since the feature’s launch, forcing users with Samsung phones and non-Samsung Android tablets to manually enable hotspots.

However, starting with the Galaxy S25, Instant Hotspot is finally available on Samsung phones. We confirmed this on our Galaxy S25 Ultra review unit and on Google’s support page. The feature works as expected. Your Android tablet gets a notification asking if you want to use your phone’s hotspot. Tapping the “connect” button creates a temporary hotspot on your phone that your tablet automatically connects to. Alternatively, you can open the Internet panel on your tablet and select your phone’s hotspot from the list.

Google’s support page states that Instant Hotspot is only available on “Samsung S25 and newer devices.” However, several users who have updated their older Galaxy devices to One UI 7 report that the feature is available for them. This suggests that the One UI 7 update is the reason Instant Hotspot now works on Samsung devices, and that older versions of One UI were incompatible with the feature.

If you own a Samsung phone and a non-Samsung Android tablet, let us know in the comments if you plan to use Android’s Instant Hotspot feature!

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