In this article, we will tell you how to turn your Android phone into Wі-Fi hotspot. This will allow sharing mobile internet via Wі-Fі, for example, to your laptop or any other device equipped with Wі-Fі module.

Contents

About the hotspot

Let us first find out what is the Wi-Fi hotspot in Android?This is an opportunity of a portable device (in this case, phone or tablet) to access the network or the Internet using the Wі-Fі access point. This can be seen, for example, in the cafes, which do this to attract visitors. We want to show what you need to do in order to use Android phone as the Wі-Fi hotspot.

The manual way

So here’s the first way to turn Android phone into Wі-Fі hotspot. For the first time be sure to configure Wі-Fi hotspot on Android,in order to ensure that your network has a name and the right level of protection with password (if needed). You can make your access point open to everyone, but in this case it is desirable to have unlimited mobile Internet in your tariff. Otherwise you can quickly spend all the money on your phone.

  1. Go to the settings of your device.
  2. Click the tab “Tethering and portable hotspot” (in different versions of Android tabs may have slightly different names).

    Settings

  3. Select “Portable Wі-Fi hotspot”.

    Portable Wі-Fi hotspot

  4. To start the setup, press “Create Wі-Fi hotspot”, and in the next window you will have to configure Android Wі-Fі hotspot.

    Create Wі-Fi hotspot

  5. In the SSID line, come up and write the name of the Wi-Fi hotspot on Android.

    Name of the Wi-Fi hotspot

  6. In “Security”, select “open” if you want to make your network free for everybody (without protection). If you want to have the password, we suggest you to select «WPA2 PSK».

    Protection

  7. And if you have chosen a secure method, write the password, and anyone who will desire to connect to your network will have to enter it.

    Password

  8. And after these actions you will only have to click the “Save” button.

    Save

Note: If you want the connected devices to have access to the Internet, activate data transfer. To do this, go to: settings/wireless & networks/mobile network/data, or settings /mobile networks/mobile data.

After all the settings are finished, it only remains to understand how to use the Wі-Fi hotspot on Android. It is very easy: the hotspot can only be turned on or off, it doesn’t have extra features. To turn on the Wi-Fi hotspot on Android, follow steps 1-3 from the previous explanation, and switch the slider. After that, your phone (or other device) will start to tether the internet, and you should try to connect to it from other devices. You can use the same method to turn off this function – just move the slider.

Move the slider

Useful applications

So, we have learned how to use Android phone as Wi-Fi hotspot. We offer to install several simple applications that will facilitate the hotspots managing, for example, you will have the possibility to enable or disable the access point in one tap from your desktop.

The first application is called “Portable Wi-Fi hotspot”, and it is available for free in the GоoglePlay.

Once you have downloaded and installed this app to your device, you would see its icon on the one of your desktops. You’ll just need to tap on it to activate the hotspot, and to do exactly the same to turn it off.

Portable Wi-Fi hotspot

The second program with similar functions is called “Wі-Fi Hotspot”; it is also free.

Its potential lies in its interactive widget, which is responsible for changing the activity of your network, as well as in its colored diodes, which indicate the state of your network. If the diodes are of red color, the network is not active (off); if they flash blue and green, the network is turning on; if they are just blue, then the hotspot is active (on).

Wi-Fi hotspot widget

We have described in detail how to turn Android into the Wi-Fi hotspot, and we hope that nobody will have any difficulties with this. Good luck.

Managing the hotspot in Android: Video

[rBlock name=after_video return=1]
[rBlock name=after_sharing return=1]
[rBlock name=after_text return=1]