How To Enable Family Sharing On Your iPhone Personal Hotspot

When we were younger, many of us never had to think about refilling toilet paper in our bathrooms or getting our laundry done. But at some point in our adult lives, the tables suddenly turn. One day, you begin offering your home to gather in for the holidays, your younger siblings begin to piggyback off of your Costco membership, and your parents start joining in on our streaming subscriptions.

With the holidays coming up, sharing is caring, especially when it comes to your internet connection and the subscriptions that come with it. After all, adding another person to your subscriptions can be cheaper than a new gadget or ugly sweaters they might never wear. Plus, they'll remember to be nice to you the whole year, lest you cancel your subscription, change the password, or basically keep them from accessing it forever.

With Apple's Family Sharing feature, not only can you share your mobile network connection painlessly and automatically through your iPhone, but you can also include some pretty features and cool content along with it. Here's how.

To automatically share your mobile hotspot with members of your Apple-registered family, open your iPhone and go to the Settings app. Then, tap Personal Hotspot > Family Sharing. In the next tab, toggle on the button next to Family Sharing. Lastly, next to the name of your family members, tap Ask for Approval. Under their name, select Automatic. Afterward, your designated family members will be able to connect automatically to your iPhone hotspot whenever they're nearby.

When going through this process, you may be thinking, "Well, I don't really speak to family that much anymore." Well, it may come in handy if you have a group of friends who you see frequently and act like your chosen family. Thankfully, Apple doesn't discriminate for its Family Sharing features, and you can opt to add friends, as long as they have Apple accounts and don't mind the responsibilities that come with it.

If you're keen to add new family members, like the ones you've come to love and support you throughout the years, to your Apple Family, here's how to do it.

To add family members to your Apple Family Sharing, open your iPhone settings and click your name in the upper portion of the screen. Then, select Family Sharing> Add Member.

Aside from automatically connecting to your Wi-Fi hotspot, Family Sharing also lets you share subscriptions to Apple services like Apple Music, Apple TV+, and Apple Arcade. Additionally, Family Sharing can also be used to help recover your account if you've forgotten your password, track your lost devices via FindMy, and sign up for family plans for iCloud+.

With Family Sharing, Apple shares that you can enforce parental controls and download music, movies, TV shows, and books on up to 10 devices per account. While you can share purchases and browse another family member's collection, Family Sharing also lets you hide some of them so you can maintain some privacy.

Bear in mind that you can only have up to six family members be part of your Family Sharing, including you. This means if you have a ton of siblings or friends, you should probably be strategic about which ones can help contribute. You can also treat subscription sharing as your form of charity for your struggling loved ones. After all, charity can start at home.