Mobile hotspot, also known as portable or personal hotspot, can be found with many smartphones, tablets and computers. You can find it on Windows PC, Mac computer, iPhone, Android phones, etc. A personal hotspot on the phone allows you to share cellular data or internet connection with other Wi-fi enabled devices. In other words, a mobile hotspot creates a Wi-Fi network that other devices can connect to, just like they would to any other Wi-Fi network.
Other than sharing the cellular data connections with other nearby devices, portable hotspot or personal hotspot on our phones can also help us do other great things. File sharing through hotspot is one of them. Till now you may be using Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or USB tethering to share files between mobile phones. Do you know that mobile hotspot can help us send and receive any kind of file to and from other android devices at blazing fast speeds? Once you’ve connected the devices to the mobile hotspot’s Wi-Fi network, they should be able to communicate with each other just like they would on any other Wi-Fi network.
The the transfer rate of files are around 10MB/s based on my personal experience using the hotspot file transfer app below. You can transfer large files of hundreds MBs in a few minutes.
Important Tips: It’s important to note that using a mobile hotspot can use up your cellular data plan quickly, so it’s a good idea to monitor your usage to avoid unexpected charges or use a file sharing app that support local file sharing, thus not using your cellular data.
There are a few different ways to share files between devices connected to a mobile hotspot. One option is to use a file-sharing app or service that allows you to transfer files directly between devices without uploading files to a server or cloud service in the middle. This method can help us copy files from one device to another directly, without consuming our cellular data.
Step 1. Enable Wi-fi hotspot on Android
We will set up a hotspot on one of the devices and connect the second device to it. Different Android phones may differ in settings and screens. Normally you can head to Settings >> Wireless and Network >> More option, then find and activate portable Wi-fi hotspot from there. For example, Samsung users can follow these steps to setup Wi-Fi hotspot on Samsung phones; Mi users can refer to this tutorial to enable Wi-Fi hotspot on Xiaomi and Redmi phones.
Note: You might not find the option to create a personal hotpot on the phone because your wireless carrier does not allow that or you may need to pay extra money to get the mobile hotspot feature.
Step 2. Connect to Wi-Fi hotspot from another Android or computer
In previous step we have configured virtual Wi-Fi hotspot on Android mobile. Now you can connect to the Wi-Fi hotspot from other Wi-Fi enabled devices just like you connect your phone to regular Wi-Fi network.
Step 3. Transfer files via hotspot on Android
Since Android doesn’t have built in support to share files via virtual wi-Fi hotspot, you will need to download third party file transfer app which support file transfer over Wi-Fi hotspot, such as Zapya, Super beam, SHAREit. For more details, you can refer to following guide to transfer files between mobile phones through Hotspot using SHAREit. This cross-platform free file transfer app can actually turn on portable Wi-Fi hotspot on your Android phone automatically. Thus you save the first step to enable it manually from Android settings. Except SHAREit, Zapya is also a good option for wireless file sharing via hotspot.