Can Personal Hotspot share existing Wi-Fi connection?
Any idea if Apple might be working on improving the personal hotspot to include sharing an existing Wi-Fi connection as the data source, rather than forcing cellular data to be used? This would help users avoid extra charges and improve flexibility in scenarios like sharing public Wi-Fi with other devices. Other phones simply allow either Wi-Fi or cellular to be used as the source for the personal hotspot; Apple users would likely enjoy the feature as well. Yes it's really a feature request for a network bridge, similar to how a travel router works.
Here are a few scenarios where it would help my family that are not bypassing paywalls.
We rented a home with unlimited WiFi. Problem was it didn't cover a room the kids were staying in. Bridging the WiFi through personal hotspot would allow me to extend the network to an area it was needed without digging into my limited cellular data that had a poor signal.
I recent hotel stay kept knocking the kids tablets off the unlimited WiFi, then I'd have to reauthenticate on their device each time. One of the kindle readers wouldn't connect at all. My phone was fine. It would have been quick and easy to get everyone's devices online if I could use WiFi as source for the personal hotspot.
A couple of years ago I moved from the other phones to iPhone. WiFi as source for the hotspot is the one feature I miss when we're traveling. Hope Apple would consider adding this feature in the future.
iPhone 17 Pro Max, iOS 26