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Chromebook Instant Tethering expands beyond Google devices and phones

Chromebook Instant Tethering expands beyond Google devices and phones

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30 phones and 15 Chromebooks

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Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Google is opening up one of the nicest little features of its Chrome OS devices: Instant Tethering, which allows you to activate your phone’s hot spot and get online directly from a Chromebook. The feature will soon work with more than 30 Android phones and 15 additional Chromebooks, on top of the small selection where it’s already available — namely, Google’s Chromebooks and Pixel phones.

As it tends to be with Chrome OS features, the new option is rolling out to more devices beyond the current set of devices “over the coming months.”

To activate the feature, you’ll need to pair your Android phone to your Chromebook in settings. After that, you should have the option to enable Instant Tethering in the “Connected Devices” section of settings. That’s also where you’ll find “Smart Lock,” which lets you unlock your Chromebook with your phone’s fingerprint sensor.

Once Instant Tether is enabled, you should be able to connect to it from the Quick Settings panel on the right-hand side of your app shelf. Chrome OS should show your phone’s signal strength and battery life there, too, swapping out the Wi-Fi indicator for the triangular network indicator. If you are connected to your phone’s hot spot and haven’t done anything for 10 minutes, it should automatically disconnect.

I’ve been using Instant Tether with a Pixelbook and a Pixel 3 for a while now, and it is definitely more convenient than digging your phone out of your pocket, but it’s not more convenient than having LTE on the device itself. There were also some bugs early on, but they seem to have been quashed in the past couple of months.

Here’s the full list of supported phones and Chromebooks:

Instant Tethering for Chromebooks

PhonesPhonesChromebooks
HTC U11 Motorola Moto ZAcer Chromebook 13
HTC U11+ Motorola Moto Z2 ForceAcer Chromebook 14
HTC U12+ Motorola Z3Acer Chromebook 15
Huawei Mate 10 OnePlus 5Acer Chromebook R11
Huawei Mate 10 Pro OnePlus 5TAcer Chromebook Spin 13
Huawei Mate 20 OnePlus 6ASUS Chromebook C423
Huawei Mate 20 Pro OnePlus 6TASUS Chromebook Flip C302
Huawei Mate 20 X Samsung Galaxy S7Dell Inspiron Chromebook 14
LG G7 ThinQ Samsung Galaxy S7 ActiveHP Chromebook 11 G5
LG V30 Samsung Galaxy S7 EdgeHP Chromebook x2
LG V30+ Samsung Galaxy Note 8HP Chromebook x360 14
LG V30S ThinQ Samsung Galaxy S8Lenovo Yoga Chromebook C630
LG V30S+ ThinQ Samsung Galaxy S8+Samsung Chromebook 3
LG V35 ThinQ Samsung Galaxy Note 9Samsung Chromebook Plus V2
LG V40 ThinQSamsung Galaxy S9Samsung Chromebook Plus V2 LTE
Samsung Galaxy S9+