If you work on the move, hotspot is not a bonus feature. It is the feature. Here is how to get the most out of it.
Turning it on
iPhone: Settings, Personal Hotspot, then Allow Others to Join. If Personal Hotspot is missing from the menu entirely, your data line is set to the wrong SIM. Fix that under Mobile Service and it reappears.
Android: Settings, Network and internet, Hotspot and tethering, then Wi-Fi hotspot.
The settings that matter
- Use the 5 GHz band where your phone offers it. It is considerably faster over short distances, which is all a hotspot needs to cover.
- Set a real password. An open hotspot in a hotel lobby will find friends you did not invite.
- Turn off Maximise Compatibility on iPhone unless an older device genuinely needs it. It forces the slower 2.4 GHz band.
- Keep the phone plugged in for long sessions. Hotspot is the single most expensive thing a phone battery does.
Why laptops eat data
A laptop does not know it is on mobile data. It will download operating system updates, sync cloud folders and back up photo libraries without asking. On a metered plan that is painful. On an unlimited one it does not matter, which is rather the point, but it is still worth marking the connection as metered in Windows or macOS if you want your battery to last.
What we do not do
We do not cap hotspot or meter it separately: tethered data is treated exactly like the data you use on the phone, under the same network operator's Fair Usage Policy. Running a full working day off a phone is a normal use of this, not an edge case.