For a long time now, Google had been prudent in keeping users true to their credentials. The idea is somewhat difficult to implement regarding people’s names and other demographic data as they can easily be faked. But not so with how the company detects a person’s actual country of origin, likely in reference to his IP address and possibly with the involvement of the ISP.

Of course, there is also a way as how Google can be tricked regarding your real location with the use of VPNs to mask your real location in the world and other pertinent data that might reveal information about you through your device. But for people who do not use VPN and the like, they are at direct exposure to the world regarding their real location.

If you come from a country with a less desirable offering from Google with its Play Store, sticking to your home country as the default and only country setting with your Google Play Store account can be severely restricting. Say, not being able to download and therefore play a game which is otherwise enjoyed by other people in other parts of the world.

One good example of this strict limitation is the censoring of a game like Pokemon GO from the Google Play Store in some countries while making it easily accessible from others. It is in this kind of scenario when you really would wish you are from someplace else.

See also: How to get the Recycle Bin feature on any Android device

Sadly, when your account is already locked to a particular country, Google Play Store would have that to be the case indefinitely. But there is a caveat to this idea—not everyone is bounded by this rule, apparently.

To VPN or not to VPN? Switch Play store account to another country

Intuitively, bypassing this problem may be as simple as opting for a premium subscription with a trusted VPN platform and creating an account anew, as if you are from another country. But then again, this approach is not itself without the added cost and can be more than what average users would like to opt for.

Change-country-Play-store-Android-Tutorial-Guide

On the other hand, you could also be among those lucky few who, at seemingly random coincidence, is given the option to change your country setting within your Google Play Store account.

To iterate, this privilege does not apply to everybody and may possibly be due to an account not meeting a set of undisclosed criteria.

Related: How to receive Android notifications on your iOS device

But if you are so keen on finding out whether or not you are endowed with such privilege, here’s how you can know if you can change your country in the Google Play Store:

Step 1: Access your Google Play Store account and open your Account settings.

Step 2: You will be presented with a page which contains other options to click on to, namely Payment methods, Subscriptions, Rewards, Email preferences, Order history, and—as you guessed it—the option to change your account’s country setting with “Country and profiles.”

Step 3: If it’s there, intuitively, click on “Country and profiles.”

The list of country’s you are available to switch to, however, is only restricted to few options which Google detected as significant with your account. Do not be surprised therefore to not be given an option to switch to a country of choice when you did not have any significant transactions with it.

That’s it for now. If you don’t have the said option, don’t worry. In our next tutorial, we’ll share other ways on how you can access other country’s apps and contents.

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