Even though iPads can be set up with 5G, it’s often more cost-effective to share your iPhone’s connection with your tablet.
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On this matter, iOS and iPadOS have made significant progress: the iPad can now detect your nearby iPhone and suggest connecting to it. This might sound simple on paper, but in practice…
Many of you have complained about the connection not only failing to initiate but also not maintaining consistently between the two devices. Sometimes you might need to restart the sharing on the iPhone or reconnect on the iPad… It makes you wonder if Apple is in cahoots with carriers to push you towards getting a second 5G plan!
Sharing Connection Between iPad and iPhone
With iPadOS 26, Apple finally introduces the feature everyone has been waiting for!
Yes, you read that right, there’s now an option to Always Connect
, a feature that automates the connection between the two devices. I’ve been testing this for a week now, and it works quite well, assuming you haven’t turned off sharing on your iPhone. I haven’t run into major issues, except after turning airplane mode on and off at an airport, but I guess the system can be a bit finicky in such cases.
However, be cautious before selecting this option, as the iPad will also use your data plan. Apple doesn’t really provide a way to block large downloads, treating the shared connection like a WiFi network.
Note that you can still use the previous system, with connection on demand… For occasional use, it’s more than enough
This feature is even more anticipated with iPadOS 26 as the system finally allows for effective multitasking. Thanks to the new system-level windowing (see the video above), the iPad now functions almost like a Mac, and I find myself using the tablet much more frequently on the go, not just as a device for browsing.