com.sec.mhs.smarttethering Copy

Labelled "Auto Hotspot" on the device and signed by Samsung OEM keys that also sign the Android framework, this is the Galaxy convenience layer on top of the standard mobile hotspot. Samsung describes the feature as allowing "your phone's internet connection to be shared with devices that are signed in to your Samsung account, or your Samsung family group", configured from Settings under Connections, then Mobile Hotspot and Tethering, then Mobile Hotspot, then Auto Hotspot, with a separate switch for family sharing. Its recorded permissions match that description, including Samsung account and Samsung mobile service permissions plus the ability to write settings. For Android Enterprise, EMM and kiosk deployments the relevant point is that this is a consumer sharing feature keyed to a personal Samsung account, which is usually not something a corporate fleet wants active. It has no enrolment or management role. The supported way to control tethering is the platform user restriction DISALLOW_CONFIG_TETHERING, added in API level 21, which stops a user using and configuring tethering and portable hotspots through Settings, and which applies to all forms of tethering rather than to this package alone. Prefer that restriction over disabling the package, because the restriction is what an EMM can report on and reapply. We could not source whether the ordinary mobile hotspot continues to work with this package disabled, so if you do disable it, verify normal tethering on one device first. Version note: builds observed here run from 1.1.19.0 to 1.2.67.0, targeting API 29 up to 36, so it is maintained across current Android releases. Samsung's support page states no One UI or Android version requirement for Auto Hotspot, and we could not source when the feature was introduced or whether its behaviour has changed across releases, so treat its availability on any given build as something to confirm on the device.

• Use a mobile hotspot on your Galaxy phone or tablet - Samsung US →
• UserManager.DISALLOW_CONFIG_TETHERING - Android Developers →
• Package provenance for com.sec.mhs.smarttethering - Android System App Database →

• Signed by the device maker's own signing key (Samsung), so it is an OEM preinstall, but 2 different certificates appear across the fleet, so OEMs ship their own builds of it. It also signs the Android framework, so it is a platform-level key on its device(s). Inferred from the certificate appearing only on Samsung devices (508 packages, 10196 observations).
• Its largest observed manifest declares 13 permissions: 1 runtime (user-granted), 3 signature or system-level, 3 install-time and 6 vendor or uncatalogued.
• Never reported as user-facing, so it runs as a background or system component rather than an app the user opens.