Google’s Instant Tethering feature is now officially rolling out to more owners of Google Pixel and Nexus handsets. Instant Tethering, a new feature via Google Play Services 10.2, makes it easier to use the mobile hotspot on your mobile devices, often a tedious task. Instant Tethering essentially links up all the devices associated with your Google account, which means if one loses connection, you’ll immediately be asked if you want to connect to another nearby device with internet access.
As long as you’ve got a fairly generous data plan, it should make staying online when there’s no Wi-Fi around much simpler. Instant Tethering is launching for Nexus and Pixel devices running Android Nougat 7.1.1 first and while the wider rollout is good news, you do still need to be using one of a handful of specific devices – namely, the Pixel, Pixel C, Pixel XL, Nexus 6, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, and Nexus 9. All of those need to be running Android Nougat as well.
If you fulfill those requirements, you’ll be able to set your phone (or tablet) up as a host device and devices that you want to connect to your new hotspot only need to be running Android Marshmallow (6.0) or higher, both devices also need to be connected to the same Google account,
Once you’re setup, a notification will appear on your non-host devices whenever you’re in range and there’s a data connection. Once you’re done, it’ll automatically disconnect after 10 minutes of sitting idle.
If you want to check and see if you’ve acquired the option with a recent OTA update, head to Settings > Google and it’ll appear in the list as Instant Tethering, if available to you.
