A recent commit in the Chromium Gerrit seems to suggest that Chrome OS might soon get USB tethering support for iOS. Believed to have been spotted first by Chrome Unboxed, a new Gerrit entry called ‘Enable kernel support for iPhone tethering through USB’ seemingly confirms that users will soon be able to tether their iPhones with their Chromebooks to share their mobile data connections.
It is worth noting that iPhones can currently be tethered to Chromebooks, but only via Wi-Fi. However, as pointed out within the commit notes, “iPhone tethering through USB consumes less battery than wireless or Bluetooth tethering and is much safer. Based on user reports, it is also more reliable than Wifi tethering”.
Work has apparently just begun on the issue, so it isn’t possible to say when the feature might show up in Chrome OS. However, given that it is being implemented at the kernel level, it should be available on all Chrome OS devices that will be fortunate enough to get the new update.
It is worth noting here that even Bluetooth tethering doesn’t work between iPhones and Chromebooks, but there are apparently no plans to get that working any time soon. Either way, given that Wi-Fi tethering is both safer and faster than Bluetooth, it’s unlikely that anyone will miss Bluetooth tethering too much, especially once the new feature is enabled.
So, with USB tethering between iOS and Chrome OS all set to become a reality, are you looking forward to it? Or does Wi-Fi tethering work just fine for you? Do drop us a note in the comment section below.
