How and why you should use Android's new instant hotspot and call forwarding

It's taken a long time, but Google has finally figured out how to make its Android Phones and tablets communicate with each other and collaborate with each other, just like Apple and Samsung devices do. The feature, which is called cross-device services, has been leaking for years. officially announced in Mayand it started working for me a couple of days ago.

Currently, this cross-device integration has two aspects: hotspot and calling. The idea is that as long as the two phones are signed into the same Google account, they're part of the same group and can share an instant hotspot or video call when they're near each other, with no setup or passwords required. And unlike Apple or Samsung's solutions, you don't need to have a specific brand of device—this should work on all Android phones, regardless of brand (though we know most Android phone brands aren't supported). Instant hotspot will not work with Samsung devicesunfortunately).

In my experience, Google's multi-device Android rollout happens instantly and seamlessly. I can't believe it took so long, but I'm glad it's working now!

If you're out and about and have a data connection on your phone, but you're carrying a device that only works with Wi-Fi, Android Tablet (or another Android phone), you have to take the main phone, turn on the hotspot, then move to the tablet and use the internet. The first time you do this, you’ll also have to manually choose the hotspot network on your tablet and enter the password before connecting. It’s not that tedious, but it’s not that simple either, right? At least not when these smartphones are supposed to be smart enough to share this information behind the scenes. Then, when you’re done, you’ll have to manually turn everything off to avoid draining the batteries.

Another hurdle is when you're on a video call on your phone and want to move to a different, perhaps larger, screen, such as a tablet. You have to disconnect from the call and then rejoin it, or simply end the call and restart it on the other device. That's not smart or intuitive either.

Cross-device integration solves these obstacles by allowing phones and tablets to communicate with each other in the background when they’re nearby. You can make a video call to another device or start and connect to a hotspot from your secondary phone or tablet without touching or unlocking the primary one. Pretty cool, right?

How to activate cross-device services

To enable cross-device services, you need to do this in all your Android devices to ensure that everyone can benefit from this new integration (see screenshots for step-by-step instructions).

1. Gonna Settings > Google > All services > Multi-device services
2. Tap Next to configure services between devices.
3. Tap OK to join a group of your devices under the same Google account.

Once this is done, you will see the multi-device services settings, which include Casting call and Sharing the InternetMake sure both features are enabled if you want to use both, or disable one of them if you don't want it. You can also see all the account groups your device is part of (if you have multiple Google accounts on your phone, like I do), all the devices that are part of each group, and change the name your device appears under in these groups.

And that's it, basically. Repeat that on all the phones and tablets you have to add them to the same group. Once that's done, all you have to do is be in a situation where the use of multiple devices is needed and it will appear on its own.

There are two ways your secondary phone or tablet can join an instant hotspot from your primary device. The first is a push notification that pops up fairly frequently whenever I unlock my offline phone when I'm near my connected phone.

The notification just asks me if I want to use my phone's primary hotspot and I click Connect It triggers the instant hotspot process and connects to it (first three screenshots below). This works for both data and Wi-Fi networks, by the way, though it's obviously more useful for data – it's always going to be better to share Wi-Fi network credentials with your secondary device and connect directly to that network. On the primary phone, you'll see a notification (rightmost screenshot below) letting you know that you're now providing data to another device. Then, when you're done, just tap the Disconnect Option in your secondary device's notification and voila! The hotspot is stopped and everything is back to normal.

If you don't get the push notification, which has been a very, very rare occurrence for me, you can manually scan for available Wi-Fi networks and you should see your primary phone as an optional network there at the top, with a phone icon next to it. Tapping on it starts the same instant hotspot process.

How to make a video call to a second phone or tablet

The second aspect of multi-device services is the ability to move a video call from one device to another, for example from your phone to your tablet or vice versa. To do this, just tap the icon Cast at the top right during a Google Meet video call and a pop-up should appear asking if you want to transfer the call to other devices. In that list, you will find nearby devices and you can choose one of them.

Once this is done, the receiving device automatically opens Meet, loads the video call screen, and asks you to confirm the transfer. Select Change here, And that's it. You're now taking the call from your second device, while on your primary device a notice appears explaining that the call has been transferred.

A promising start to Apple-style continuity and cross-platform integration

I've been using these tricks for various devices for the past few days while traveling and covering IFA in Berlin. And I love this new magic trick. Pixel 9 Pro XL You have a data connection thanks to roaming throughout the EU, but my Pixel 9 Pro foldable It doesn’t, and instead of picking up the Pro XL and turning the hotspot on and off every time I want to use the Pro Fold’s larger screen, I simply pick up the Fold and start an instant hotspot, then turn it off when I’m done — no need to touch the Pro XL or unlock it. Easy peasy. I imagine this will be just as easy when using a tablet while off Wi-Fi. I no longer need to worry about the awkwardness of manual hotspots.

In some ways, the simplicity of this reminds me of Fast Pair. Nowadays, I take it for granted that my earbuds will seamlessly sync with my new Android phone or that I can switch between two devices. But there was a time when this wasn't possible and I had to sync them manually.

Cross-device services are the kind of seamless transition that works and makes you wonder why we had to wait. This long to see it on stock Android. But better late than never, right? And yes, some brands had their own version on their Android MaskBut that was limited to just their phones. The fact that Google has implemented it across all Android systems is a benefit for everyone, especially those of us who own phones and/or tablets from multiple brands.

However, I hope that soon manual setup will not be necessary and that multi-device services will be enabled out of the box for your phones or tablets, or at least as part of the initial phone setup process.

And now that that's done, I can't wait to see what else Google has in store as far as more cross-device features go. Copy and paste between devices, sharing media instantly without having to manually accept it on the second phone (our own research told us that Google is working on Quick Share between devices), and perhaps more options will appear soon to facilitate integration between multiple Android devices, regardless of brand. I'd love to see that.