Instant Tethering is an Android feature that lets you share your phone’s WiFi hotspot easily. According to the official documentation:

“You can automatically share a mobile data connection between certain Pixel and Nexus devices via Wi-Fi when they’re signed in to the same Google Account. For example, you can automatically connect your tablet to the Internet using your phone’s data connection”

In simple words, you use your Google password instead of your WiFi hotspot’s password. This feature seems to be making its way to Chrome OS too. On my Chromebook running the latest Canary channel of Chrome OS, I have the following flag:

Instant Tethering Chrome OS

Enables Instant Tethering. Instant Tethering allows your nearby Google phone to share its Internet connection with this device. #enable-tether

To enable this feature, you should turn this flag on and restart your Chromebook. After this restart, Instant Tethering shows up on your Chromebook’s network menu. Click the name of the current WiFi network and you should see this:

For this to work, however, you should set up Instant Tethering on your Android phone first. Go to Settings > Google and set up Instant Tethering. Read the official documentation on Instant Tethering for Android devices to set this up.

Looks like things are still in the work-in-progress stage. I could not get this working on my Chromebook. Or maybe because I am too tired after two nights of traveling by train. If you guys get this working, please drop me a comment.

Stay tuned for updates.