I signed up for a SIM for my smartphone as soon as I moved to Portugal.
The Portuguese telecoms company apps Woo and Amigo manage plans and bills via smartphone apps.
When I tried to install them as they are, I received the following message.
‘App unavailable. This app is currently not available in this country or region.’
What do you mean you’re in Portugal and the Portuguese app doesn’t work? So we looked into it and responded.
Intent of ‘app not available’.
This may be due to the developer’s intention to limit the countries/regions of the App Store it offers, in which case it cannot be downloaded. Why limit it? I think it is to prevent language differences, unwanted bugs or unintended attacks when accessing from outside the target country.
If it’s a Portugal-only communication network like this one, there’s no need to connect from outside Portugal.
‘App unavailable’ apps cannot be searched or installed, of course, without accessing the App Store from the target country.
Install Portugal-only apps.
This is not the case if you can use the App Store in the country/region where the app is available.
In other words, you can download the app by preparing an Apple ID for the country/region where the app is available and signing in to the App Store.
However, this is quite a hassle as you need a local address. There is no uploading of ID documents, but it is better to be accurate as the App Store will take payment.
Change your Apple Account account settings from the App Store.
Launch the App Store app.
Tap the round account in the top right-hand corner.
You will be redirected to the account screen, where you can further tap where the account name is displayed.
Tap Apple Account.
Tap Change country or region name.
Read the Terms of Use and tap Agree.
Enter your personal details such as payment method, name and address in Portugal and click Next to complete.
If you are stumped here by registering a credit card, tap on ‘Nenhum’. You will no longer need to register a credit card.
When the country setting in Apple Account is changed, the search will search for apps that are limited to the Portugal region.
