Use your iPhone as Wi-Fi hotspot

setup iphone wifi hotspot

If you are stuck on the go and in desparate need of internet connection, you can use your iPhone as a Wi-Fi hotspot so other mobile devices can share your data plan and surf the internet at the same time. If you have a Samsung galaxy smartphone, you can refer to this guide to set up Wi-fi Hotspot on your Samsung smart phones.

Ever since the iOS 4.3 update, Apple allows iPhone users to create a Wi-Fi hotspot using their cellular data connection. What can you do with the wi-fi hotspot enabled on iPhone. This Personal Hotspot feature on iPhone allows you to share your Internet connection with up to six Wi-Fi enabled devices at the same time. For example, you can share iPhone mobile data or cellular data with another iPhone, iPad, iPod, other smart phones, like Samsung, Nokia, HTC, Motorola, Nexus, Lenovo, ZTE, OnePlus, Huawei, LG, Sony, Sharp and more.

Want to share internet connection from computer to mobile phones? Do not miss out this tutorial to share your Mac’s Wi-Fi connection with iPhone or Android.

If you do not have a cellular data plan with your service provider, you will not be able to enable the hot spot feature on iPhone. You can contact your cellular service provider for the details.

Here we show you how to enable Wi-Fi hotspot functionality on your iPhone in a snap.

Steps to set up iPhone Wi-Fi hotspot.

  1. From your iPhone home screen, select Settings.
  2. From the Settings screen, select Personal Hotspot and toggle on the option.
  3. Set a password for the personal hotspot
  4. After that, go to join the hotspot from another mobile phone or wi-fi devices.

Join iPhone hotspot from another device

You can use Bluetooth, USB or Wi-Fi to connect your other device to your iPhone.

You can connect iPhone hotspot using Wi-Fi

1. Choose the iPhone name from the Wi-fi settings on your computer or other device.
2. Enter the password when prompted.

To Connect iPhone hotspot using Bluetooth

1. Pair iPhone with your computer.
2. On iPhone, tap Pair or enter the code display on your computer.
3. Connect to iPhone from computer.

Turn on Personal Hotspot to share your iPhone’s internet connection, additional usage charges may apply. Don’t forget to turn the Personal Hotspot switch off when you’re finished using it to avoid extra data charges.

Update Jul 2018: this article was originally published in Feb 2013 and has since been updated. in this update, internet sharing from Mac to mobile phone was added.