Windows 11s best new feature will only be for Samsung phone owners

Date:
Fri, 28 Oct 2022 09:34:41 +0000

Description:
Another Phone Link feature is exclusive to Samsung, but hopefully instant hotspot wont stay that way.

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Windows 11 has got a nifty new feature that allows for much more
conveniently hooking up your PC to a mobile phone with the latter acting as a Wi-Fi hotspot, although the functionality is just in testing for now, and
only works with Samsung smartphones .

The ability to instantly access your phones hotspot is facilitated by the Phone Link app (formerly Your Phone), and its introduced in preview build 25231 in the Dev Channel (early testing channel for Windows Insiders).

Instant hotspot means you can very swiftly connect to your handsets hotspot just by clicking a button assuming the device is in range without having to touch your phone or mess around with any hotspot settings, typing in
passwords and so forth. (Image credit: Microsoft)

As mentioned, you need a Samsung device running One UI 4.1.1+ to be precise and your PC must support Bluetooth. You also need to be running the new preview build 25231 of Windows 11, of course, and have the Phone Link desktop app version v1.22082.111.0 (or better).

For more details on how to set it all up, see Microsofts blog post on the new build which further lists the other tweaks the software giant has made here, which are mainly bug fixes (and known issues). Analysis: Please, Microsoft, bring this to other phones besides Samsung

This is a really smart and convenient touch for Phone Link to cut down on the hassle related to using your phone as a hotspot for your Windows 11 machine.

Common scenarios for when you might avail yourself of the instant hotspot
are, for example, when youre out and about, and want to use your Windows 11 laptop with your smartphones cellular connection. Or, maybe youre at home and the broadband goes down you might then want to hop on your mobile broadband instead via your phone, and can do so instantly with no fuss using this feature (until your full-fat broadband comes back on).

The obvious annoyance here is that its a Samsung-only feature, but for Phone Link users, that particular stumbling block is nothing new, as functionality has been tied to Samsung devices exclusively in the past a number of times.

When will instant hotspot come to other phones? We dont know. Indeed, this is the early testing channel as observed above, so theres a chance the feature may be ditched before making the cut for the release version of Windows 11.
In this case, that seems unlikely, but who knows.

At any rate, fingers crossed for wider support than just Samsung devices with this one. It certainly seems a bit daft that you cant benefit from this ability on Microsofts own Android-powered Surface Duo 2 , but hopefully
thatll change soon enough.

Via Neowin



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/windows-11s-best-new-feature-will-only-be-for-s amsung-phone-owners/


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