# For those who use a tablet to Uber: Do you use Wifi, Bluetooth, or USB to connect to your phone?



## _Tron_ (Feb 9, 2020)

ANDROID PLATFORM

EDIT: Gave up trying to "mirror" the screen of my phone to my tablet (see below). Mirroring only mimics the size of the phone's screen, it does not fill the real estate of the tablet's screen. That was the point.

So again, I got a tablet for free, and the additional real estate for when navigating is quite tempting. I don't want to add a cellular data plan to the tablet, even though it is possible. The data plans on my two smart phones (one for Uber one for Lyft) is tuned exactly how I like.

Mirroring had great promise for its simplicity but the image won't fill the screen. So configuring instead for tethering in order to run the Uber app on the tablet and draw internet from the cell phone's data plan. But tethering has options to connect via Bluetooth, wifi, or USB. Wondering which connection type others have found to work best.


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I have a very specific question. I just scored a Samsung tablet (Galaxy tab a7 lite), and I want to see about using it in the car for Ubering. I am seeing that you can tether a tablet to a phone, *or*, you can mirror the phone's screen to the tablet. I am leaning toward mirroring over tethering, but I see there are a few different ways to mirror. Anybody have experience as to best way to mirror a phone to a tablet?

Here is my setup:
1) I run two phones. One for Uber an one for Lyft.
2) The tablet does NOT have a phone number. I want to use cellular data from the phones to use Uber and Lyft apps.
3) The tablet and one phone is Samsung. The other phone is a Moto.

OVERVIEW
I envision mirroring my Uber phone to the tablet when on an Uber ride, and then switching to mirroring the Lyft phone while on Lyft rides. I am _guessing_ that this will be smoother than running the Uber and Lyft apps on the tablet and switching the WiFi from the hotspot one phone to another. Another HUGE advantage to mirroring for me is that BOTH the Uber an Lyft apps will always be showing on the phone screens. I like this to remind me to go offline on one app when I get a ping on the other app (this is the main reason I run two phones).

EXECUTION
I see that Samsung has a service called "Samsung Flow", which uses "Smart Flow" to mirror screens between two Samsung devices. Since one of my phones is a Moto I assume this service is out.

3rd party apps I found are ApowerMirror, Teamviewer, and Inkwire Screenshare + Assist. Anyone have experience using these apps to mirror while on the road?


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## _Tron_ (Feb 9, 2020)

Ah ha. Making headway. Posting this for whoever else may invent this wheel in the future.

Tethering via wifi works, but you need to set the cell phone up as a HotSpot. When you do that you no longer can make a wifi connection from the cell phone to an external hotspot like McDonald's. In other words you can either share an internet connection from your phone, OR, use your phone to _get_ internet. But not both at the same time.

What that boils down to is that you can only share _cellular _data with another device, not wifi data. Weird. Now of course that limitation will not bother most drivers since we are on the road anyway and all we have is cellular data.

But since tethering is also possible via Bluetooth I thought, what the hell, let's give it a try. It works! Really nice when technology that is _supposed _to work actually does. With the Bluetooth tethering I can still connect to a wifi hotspot on my phone. So, two potential data streams to share with the tablet in certain circumstances.

To pull off the Bluetooth tethering you just pair the two devices via Bluetooth then turn on Bluetooth Tethering on the cell phone. That's all it took for me. The online guide I was working from listed additional steps to carry out on the tablet, but _my_ tablet did not need that. We learn of course that different versions of Android behave very differently, and even the same version of Android from two different vendors can be completely different (and I hate it).

I will post a pic and report on performance once the tablet gets mounted.


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## PukersAreAlwaysYourFault (Mar 25, 2021)

Battery drains


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## Daisey77 (Jan 13, 2016)

I was going to say why don't you just hotspot off your phone ? Turn on hotspot on your main device and then turn on Wi-Fi on the tablet. Picking your phone to connect to. Second option, go by the new Galaxy Z fold😎😁


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## NewLyftDriver (Sep 10, 2021)

I only skimmed post number two and the post number one was tldr, but sounds like all this typing because you didn't know tethering existed?


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## _Tron_ (Feb 9, 2020)

Daisey77 said:


> I was going to say why don't you just hotspot off your phone ? Turn on hotspot on your main device and then turn on Wi-Fi on the tablet. Picking your phone to connect to.


Yeah, that is the out-of-the-box solution as best I've heard. But I am kind of nerdy so wanted to explore all the options. Having played around with them I think Bluetooth is slightly preferable. That way I don't have to keep changing the setting on the phone from hotspot to wifi when I carry the phone into an establishment that has wifi. The bluetooth I believe will be seamless in and out of the car.


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## NewLyftDriver (Sep 10, 2021)

Why is it so important to use some public unreliable slow and potentially insecure wifi? I almost never do

Bluetooth tethering is much more limited in bandwidth


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## _Tron_ (Feb 9, 2020)

It's not that important but every once in a while it comes in handy. Like when the cell network goes down. Which it can do here under certain circumstances. One time I accepted a ride but then the network went down and I could not get the pick up address. I connected to a nearby hotspot, got the address, started the navigation, and GPS took it from there to the pick up point.

I also get requests from riders who don't have cell coverage in their neighborhood. When I get to their house its hard to start the trip with no service. But often I can connect to the customer's home wifi, start the trip, and kick in navigation. Again, GPS takes it from there.

Regarding bandwidth, you're right, but BT has far more bandwidth than is required for this work. But thanks for your comments. That's why I posted. To have my conclusions tested.


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## NewLyftDriver (Sep 10, 2021)

What cell service provider do you have that is so unreliable? I have Verizon, and have never felt the need or want to connect to some public Wi-Fi, in the last almost 15 years that I've used them.

I've used others at the same time including MetroPCS and Sprint and will never go back to that garbage


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## _Tron_ (Feb 9, 2020)

PukersAreAlwaysYourFault said:


> Battery drains


Good thing to think about. According to my research however, later versions of BT (4.0+, BTE) have licked that problem to where now BT doesn't use anymore power than wifi when active (which is when battery drain occurs).









Bluetooth Drains Your Phone Battery: Myth Or Fact? - Chipolo


How much of your phone’s battery Bluetooth will consume depends on what gadget you’re connecting to your phone. Devices like key finders use negligible amounts of power, while devices like earbuds that stream music will use a lot more power since they demand a constant quality connection.




chipolo.net





One study actually has BT using 1/4 less power than wifi.





Bluetooth vs WIFI power consumption on Android


Battery life test using Bluetooth Internet compared to WIFI on Android.



www.clearevo.com


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## NewLyftDriver (Sep 10, 2021)

I prefer Yellowtooth


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## Captain Floppy (Dec 5, 2020)

I have an iPad with a SIM card using T-Mobile’s Magenta Max unlimited plan. I used to use the tablet for UE deliveries, but it became too cumbersome when trying to hold it plus bags of food plus drinks. Now I just hotspot my old iPhone from the tablet just for UE and use the tablet for everything else (banking, streaming, etc.). I can swap the SIM card between the two, but that’s more of a hassle than I care to invest. The only drawback is that customers get a ‘call failed’ message when they call me, but that’s not really a drawback to me; in-app messaging works just fine.

Occasionally the delivery will be a bit far from the vehicle and the connectIon gets dropped, so I just have to wait until I get back to the car and reconnect to submit the photo and close out the delivery. No biggie. These wouldn’t be issues if I were driving rideshare, which I do not anymore.


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## _Tron_ (Feb 9, 2020)

Had a chance to use the tablet Friday. Love it. I can see why Moses made that long hike to get his tablets.

But seriously, got a quick payoff on a pick up to a street I was unfamiliar with. Navigating to the pickup, what was called for was a U-turn at the light (and the intersection even had a left/U turn lane), but instead Google maps wanted me to make a RIGHT and pass through a neighborhood to get turned around. But with the additional real estate of the tablet's screen I was able to see (without reaching over and pinching) that the convoluted path was in fact a sloppy U-turn, so I just made a U-ee at the light.

The downside to tethering, for me (either Bluetooth or WiFi), was that going offline on the tablet and then online on the phone when I left the car several times during the day (food, bathroom, etc.) is that it triggered an Uber security algo to prompt for a photo. I had to take my picture 3-4 times. That is unnerving. It's a shame that mirroring (also known as casting) doesn't work better because that would negate the issue.


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## SlikkRikk (Sep 25, 2016)

Only option I had was to tether via Wifi. The awesome thing is that texts go through the Uber app and calls come in through the phone so there's no need to have cell service on the tablet for everything to be fully functional. One big plus of switching to running Uber on a tablet and just using my phone for tethering and Wifi is that the phone battery lasts a lot longer now. Uber app can run for 2 days on the tablet without a charge, and the phone can go all night without a charge unlike before.


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