Need to change your Google Play Store country? In this article, you’ll learn how to change the Google Play Store location on your phone.
Google Play Store as we all know is the default store for most Android phones where users download applications and maybe Google books, movies and Google Play music for some countries like the US.
Basically, what most Android users do when they want to download an application is just open Play Store, search for an app to download, and install it on the smartphone. That’s just all until you travel or go on a vacation to a different country, you’ll need to use the proper version of Play Store for that country especially because of the billing details.
Google Play Store has different apps and features for various regions, which can either block or maybe even allow access to certain apps and features.
Other cases may be, some applications may not be available for download in your region.
You can also change your Google Play Store country and download apps that are not available for download in your region from the Google Play Store.
So whether you’ve just moved or travelled to another country and you need to update your Google Play Store billing details or you need to download an app off the Play Store that isn’t available in your own region, here is how to change your country settings in Google Play Store.
Before starting
This is a sweet recommendation for those who want to save themselves the headache: the best thing you can do to download Android applications that are not available in your country is to go to sites like APK Mirror. There you look for the app you want and you only have to allow the installation of applications from unknown sources on Android.
APK Mirror is popular for its huge repository updated daily, for its security, since it directly extracts APKs from the Play Store and you don’t have the risk of downloading apps that are trout with malware, and because it is not a place to go to steal apps paid, there are only applications that can be downloaded for free in the Google store.
If you really want to change your Google Play Store country because you need it, these are the steps:
How to Change Country in the Google Play Store
- Open the Google Play Store app
- Tap the three lines at the top left corner of the page
- Select ‘Account‘
- If you find the country-switching option, Tap ‘Country and Profiles‘
- Select your new country and add it to your Play Store account
Now you’ll be able to use the Play Store and access the apps and features for that region.
Please note that it may take up to 24 hours for the change of Google Play Store country to reflect.
Also, note that this option to change your region/country on Google Play Store won’t appear for everybody. It only shows up when you were previously in a different country i.e. IP address. This will allow you to switch your Play Store to any other country you want.
If you use the Google Play Family Library feature, you won’t see the option to change your Play Store country. Note that there are some very good applications you won’t find on the Google Play Store whether you change your region or not.
What you should note when you change your Google Play Store Country
When you change your Google Play Store region, you should take note of some important things.
- You can only change your Google Play Store country only once in a year
- You cannot use your previous payment method, only the one from the new country
- You won’t be able to spend your Google Play balance from the old country including gift cards and Google rewards you haven’t used yet.
Regardless of how you decide to change the location on your Google Play account, we recommend that you use a VPN to change your Google Play Store country and access information online, as it helps protect the guarantee of better privacy and allows you to enjoy better network neutrality.
How to Change Google Play Store Country Using VPN
This method is for those who have even more time to spend and who are not satisfied with the solution offered to download APKs, or simply do not have a valid payment method for the country you want to use.
You can use the Play Store of another country as long as you create a Google account in that country. This means that with your current account, it will not work unless you have the payment method. So the first thing is to create a new Google account from the country in question.
For this, it is necessary to use a VPN, both in the browser when creating the account, and from Android when logging in. I have used Tunnelbear, because for this the free megabytes it gives are more than enough.
- The first thing is to download the VPN on Android and make sure it works.
- The second thing is to create a new Google account also using a VPN with the location of the country whose account you want to create. You can create a UK account and put in a phone from Spain, that’s not a problem.
- The third thing is to remove your current Google account from the device: Settings> Accounts> Google> Remove account.
- Now, clear the data from the Play Store
- Open the VPN on Android and choose the country with which we are going to configure the Google account that we already created. Once it’s working it’s time to open the Play Store again.
- Log in with your new Google account details and you’re done. You should see the items in the store in the currency of that country. You do not need to add a payment method, because as it is a new account you can skip that step for now.
Why change Google Play Store Locations
The most obvious reason for changing a Google Play location is a long-term relocation. Although, as with most online services, the available catalog may vary from country to country and not all applications are available everywhere.
Popular downloads, such as the ESPN app, the CBS app, Pokemon Go, and many others, may be unavailable or not working properly in specific regions. If you want to access the entire Google Play catalog, you will need to falsify or change your Google Play Store country or location.
In addition, because the Google Play store accesses IP and GPS addresses, relocating and continuing to use Google Play without updating the information can result in a conflict between the actual and documented locations. Google may interpret the discrepancy as unauthorized access and freeze accounts.
That’s all on how to change your country or region in the Google Play Store and also download apps that are not available for download in that country.
I’m looking forward to seeing how this turns out!