iPhones and iPads have long had a feature called Personal Hotspot for tethering your cellular data connection to a Mac or another device over Bluetooth, USB or Wi-Fi. To setup the personal hotspot, users had to navigate to settings and toggle on the feature. Then, the device would appear as a Wi-Fi network or under network services in settings if connected using USB…Â
Apple aims to take this functionality a small step further in iOS 8 with Instant Hotspot, a new feature where iPads and Macs intelligently discover when an iPhone is nearby and automatically list the device under Wi-Fi networks in Settings. When an iPad is no longer using your iPhone’s cellular network, it intelligently disconnects to save battery life.
Instant Hotspot is an ideal feature for iPad and Mac owners that are out of Wi-Fi range. When enabled, a blue bar appears at the top of the Home screen like normal. It even provides you with signal strength and battery life indicators directly next to the iPhone’s name under Wi-Fi networks, both of which are important details when using a personal hotspot.
Will you use Instant Hotspot?