There are certain apps that might be limited to certain countries. In a way it makes sense because why would a rewards app for your local grocery store be available for download in a country halfway across the world? The same can also be said for banking apps and other apps that might make sense to only be used by locals in the region.
Usually this isn’t a problem, but sometimes it might be rather annoying because you need access to it. So, how do you go about accessing those apps? Short of sideloading the APK of the app (which we don’t necessarily recommend since you can’t always trust where the APKs came from), you can always try changing your Google Play country.
The process of doing so is actually rather simple and here’s how.
Change Country In Google Play
Web
- Go to pay.google.com
- Click on the Settings tab
- Under Country/Region click the pencil icon
- Click Create new profile
- Follow the instructions on the screen to add a payments method to your profile (note that the first payment method must be from the country you’re changing to)
Android
- Launch the Google Play Store app
- Tap your profile icon at the top right corner
- Go to Settings > General > Account and device preferences > Country and profiles
- Tap the country you want to change to
- Follow the instructions on adding a payment method
If the steps above don’t work, you can try accessing pay.google.com from your phone’s browser and follow the web instructions instead.
To prevent abuse, Google only allows users to change their country once per year. Usually users only change their countries when they have moved to a different country, so unless you’re someone who moves a few times a year, it wouldn’t make sense for you to change your region as often.
If you have any Google Play balance in your account, it will not be carried over to the new country. The balance will not be deleted or removed from your account, but rather it will stay in the previous country’s profile and you can use it again when you switch back. However, if you don’t plan on switching back, you might want to consider using it up before you make the change.
Your Google Play Pass subscription will continue to automatically renew. If Play Pass isn’t available in your region, you can still access the apps that you’ve installed, but you won’t be able to install new apps or browse for new ones.