BT Wi-Fi app launching for Windows 8.1 and RT next week

BT has announced that it will soon be releasing a BT Wi-Fi app for Windows 8.1 laptops and Windows RT tablets such as the Surface RT and Surface 2.

BT Broadband customers have been able to use the home internet connections of other users for several years. With over 5.2 million public hotspots split across homes, coffee shops, high streets, shopping centres and other public places, BT has one of the largest Wi-Fi networks in the world, but Windows 8 and Windows RT owners previously had to log in to each hotspot manually.

With the new app, this will become an automatic process. After installing and adding your BT broadband account details, the app will put a Live Tile on the Windows Start screen to show when you're connected to a hotspot by turning green. It will also contain a map revealing nearby hotspots.



The new app will join the existing Android, BlackBerry, iOS and Windows Phone apps, helping tablet and laptop owners get connected when on the move.

BT also revealed several tweaks to its existing apps. The iOS version will now automatically connect you to hotspots without having to open the app first, and the Beta Android release now lets you prioritise a network so it won't accidentally connect to the public hotspot when your home Wi-Fi network is within range. This feature will reportedly make it to the official app early in the New Year.

The apps are currently limited to hotspots in the UK, meaning you won't be able to use it to get online with BT's international network partner FON, but we've been told the company is working on an update that will enable this functionality. No firm release date was given but 2014 was mentioned as a provisional target.