Instant Tethering of Chrome OS is also coming to smartphones other than Pixels

Google’s Instant Tethering is being introduced on phones other than Google’s own. Users will see the feature appear on OnePlus and Samsung phones. Instant Tethering automatically sets up a hotspot for a nearby device when needed.

Android Police announces the arrival of the feature, based on various reports from users. Google itself has not officially announced anything. It seems that at this point, users still need to enable the flag chrome://flags/#instant-tethering in Chrome OS for the feature to work. Users may even need to be on the Beta or Dev channel. After that, they need to add their phone to the device list for Instant Tethering. Requirements are Chrome OS 70 and Android 7.1.

The feature started in 2017 with the Nexus 5X and newer Google phones, and the Pixel C and Nexus 9 tablet. Initially, it was therefore mainly a godsend for Google tablets. Later, Chrome OS was also given the option to use Instant Tethering as a client, but the condition that the gateway is a Google device has remained until now.