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There have been quite a few discussions related to this topic

Most of the answers conclude that this is not possible without hacking the software by rooting or using additional hardware (e.g. Bluetooth tethering). However, I recently found that my Pixel 5 is able to achieve this.

I was in a hotel room that limits 2 devices per room so I had to turn on my phone's hotspot for my tablet. I found that the IP address that websites were seeing from my tablet was actually the IP address of the hotel WiFi, not my mobile carrier's IP address. This proves that my tablet was indeed using the hotel's WiFi through my phone. I further confirmed that after turning off mobile data on my phone, the WiFi tethering still works.

Meanwhile, my older Android phone from 2018 does not support this. I also verified that iPhones don't support this either. WiFi and mobile hotspot are mutually exclusive.

My questions are

  1. Is this a feature specific to Pixel 5?
  2. If not, how can I tell if a phone supports this feature? (I mean other than actually test it)
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  • 1) Certainly not specific to Pixel 5. My Pixel 3a on Android 12 mentions this on the Hotspot settings: "[...] to provide internet to other devices through your Wi-Fi or mobile data connection [...]". This question also mentioned that it's possible on Samsung Galaxy S7 and newer devices, and this comment mentioned Redmi Notes 6 Pro.
    – Andrew T. ♦
    Jun 8, 2022 at 2:38
  • 2) This comment mentioned Wi-Fi Direct to achieve the functionality, and according to this Q&A on SO, it's possible to use Wi-Fi Direct as a Wi-Fi extender/repeater. I suppose devices that support Wi-Fi Direct can do this, though whether it's possible to use this out-of-the-box without needing to hack is another question...
    – Andrew T. ♦
    Jun 8, 2022 at 2:50

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