Hotspot Helper

A Laupin app — sideload distribution

Automatically enable your Android Wi-Fi hotspot when a paired Bluetooth device (your car, your laptop, a portable speaker) connects, and optionally disable it again when the device disconnects. Runs as a background automation so you never have to dig through Quick Settings to flip the hotspot on.

This is an alpha sideload. The app uses Shizuku to drive the hidden Android tethering APIs, which means setup is more involved than a Play Store install. It is not, and likely will not be, available on the Play Store. If "developer options + ADB pairing" sounds intimidating, the setup guide in the app walks you through every step.

Download the APK All releases on GitHub

Requirements

Android 8.0 (API 26) or newer. Tested on Android 16.
Shizuku running on the same device. The app's setup guide includes a one-tap link to install it from the Play Store or rikka.app.
Developer Options → Wireless Debugging enabled. The setup guide deep-links to the right screen.
A paired Bluetooth device you want to use as the trigger.

Screenshots

Main screen with hotspot status and target device — Main screen

About screen with update settings — About / updates

Installing

1. Allow installs from your browser

Android requires you to grant permission to whatever app is doing the install (typically your browser). Open Settings → Apps → Special app access → Install unknown apps, find the browser you'll use to download, and turn Allow from this source on. You only need to do this once.

2. Download and install

Tap the Download the APK button above on your Android device. When the download finishes, open it to install. The system installer will show the app's name and the permissions it requests.

3. Set up Shizuku

Open Hotspot Helper. On first run, tap View setup guide. It walks you through installing Shizuku, enabling Wireless Debugging, pairing it, and granting Hotspot Helper permission to use it. The guide is also reachable from About → Setup help.

4. Pick a target Bluetooth device

Back on the main screen, choose one of your paired devices as the trigger. When that device connects, Hotspot Helper enables the hotspot; when it disconnects, you can optionally have it disable the hotspot again.

Updating

The app checks laupin.ca on launch for newer releases. When one is available, a banner appears at the top of the main screen with a direct download link. You can also tap Check for updates now on the About screen, or turn the automatic check off if you prefer to manage updates yourself.

Verifying the download

Two checks confirm you're installing what was actually published:

File hash

The SHA-256 of the current APK is published separately at latest.apk.sha256. From a workstation:

# Windows (PowerShell)
(Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA256 hotspot-helper.apk).Hash.ToLower()

# macOS / Linux
shasum -a 256 hotspot-helper.apk

Compare the result to the file at the URL above. The .sha256 file is served directly from laupin.ca, while the APK itself is redirected to GitHub Releases — so a single-host compromise can't quietly produce a matched pair.

Signing certificate fingerprint

Once installed, you can confirm the app was signed by the same key every Hotspot Helper release uses. The SHA-256 fingerprint of the signing certificate is:

SHA256: 99:26:FD:C5:C8:A0:91:63:EB:BE:6A:71:D6:82:4A:14:44:00:67:4B:76:86:A3:41:64:AB:8A:86:3B:A6:FF:30

Tools like apksigtool or the Android SDK's apksigner verify --print-certs can read the same fingerprint out of an installed APK or a downloaded one.

Privacy

Hotspot Helper reads your paired Bluetooth device list and stores the address of the one you choose, locally on the device. It does not transmit Bluetooth data anywhere. The only network request the app makes is the update check against laupin.ca/apps/hotspot-helper/updates.json — no telemetry, no user identifiers, your IP is visible to the web server like any HTTPS request. Read the full privacy policy for details.

Source & releases

Published APKs and release notes live on the Laupin-ca/hotspot-helper repository on GitHub. The source code lives in a separate repository. If you'd like to follow development, file an issue, or sanity-check a release before installing, that's the place.