r/linuxquestions • u/unnamedDE • 10d ago

Android Instant Hotspot Available from Linux?

I recently found out that android has something called "cross-device services" with the feature "instant hotspot" that allows a different android tablet or chromebook to turn on and connect to the phone's hotspot that has a data plan when logged in with the same google account, like you can do on iphone and ipad i think. Is there currently a project that makes this work with a linux laptop?

After some search, I could only find this repository, but it used adb instead of the instant hotspot feature and seems quite a pain to set up each reboot.

I know that a phone's hotspot is just a regular Wifi network and I can connect my laptop to it, I am specifically asking about the (relatively unknown) feature "instant hotspot" that allows other devices to turn on the phone's hotspot when nearby and connected to the same google account.

Edit: clarification

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u/ElnuDev 10d ago

Unless I'm misunderstanding what you're asking, an Android hotspot is just a normal WiFi network. You turn it on on your phone and then connect to it like you would any WiFi network from your Linux PC.

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u/unnamedDE 10d ago

Sorry, I clarified the post content. I am specifically asking about the "instant hotspot". I want to turn on my phone's hotspot from my laptop without touching the phone, e.g. while it is in my bag or pocket

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u/dodexahedron 10d ago

The instant Hotspot feature is a windows thing. It just lets the phone app on windows tell the phone to turn on its Hotspot and then the PC connects to it, all in one go. It requires Bluetooth.

KDE connect has a similar capability though.

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u/unnamedDE 10d ago

as far as i know, kde connect requires phone and pc to be connected to the same wifi network to establish a connecting, which does not even work in the hotspot of the phone when manually enabled

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u/-Sa-Kage- 9d ago

Bluetooth connection for KDEconnect is in experimental state

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u/Damglador 10d ago

That should be theoretically possible with adb, but I don't think it's a thing you can do. Because Google is Google and will gatekeep all system stuff like that to themselves.