TikTok is one of the most famous social media apps of this era. It has over a billion active users, with most of them under the age of 30. The average TikTok user spends approximately one hour on the app. According to the total demographics, China appears to have the largest number of users, followed by India and then the USA. In Europe, TikTok is quite popular these days. Each country and region has its own content and viewership. While traveling to different countries, I have noticed a significant difference in the quality of TikTok content. So, if you want to travel around the world and see the world through the eyes of TikTok. We bring you a guide that allows you to change your country on TikTok to experience content from other regions.
How does TikTok decide your country and region, and what type of content to show you?
First, we need to understand how the TikTok algorithm works to determine your country and location. For that, we would need to delve deeper into TikTok’s location triangulation algorithm. You might have heard that VPN do not work for TikTok. VPN only spoofs the IP address and allocates you an IP address from another country. TikTok utilizes GSM information from the SIM card, as well as your phone’s location, obtained through the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. I have tried to figure out how it gets the location. It comes from inside the phone and changes when you change country.
For example, when I was in Germany, I would get content from Germany when I went on vacation to another country. Then, I would get content from that country. I even changed the content preferences to Deutsch. Then, I turned off the phone’s location services. Removed stored data of Google Play Services (As it is responsible for location storing and sharing). After removing all the data from apps that store location information, I used a VPN to determine my location and display content from my current country. One point to ponder is that I haven’t been given access or permission to access the location services in the TikTok app.
The Only Possible and Working Method to Change Location on TikTok:
First, we will discuss the methods I tried that didn’t work; then, we will provide detailed instructions on how to change the location of TikTok on iPhone and Android phones.
First, talking about methods that don’t work:
- VPN doesn’t work.
- Using a phone without a SIM card doesn’t help change the country.
- By removing the SIM card, using a VPN, and clearing the cache and saved data of TikTok. Google Play Store and Services do not work either.
- None of the methods mentioned above to spoof location and change content preferences to the language of the country are effective.
- Using TOR to triangulate the location also yields no results.
- Removing the SIM, factory resetting the phone, and adjusting the location of the Google Play Store and phone settings during setup may work for a while. Still, once you use the phone without a VPN, it will automatically change your location to your current one, making this method impractical.
The only method that works to change country on TikTok:
The only method that finally worked and allowed me to view the content from Germany was by using a German SIM card. Once I put a SIM card from the German Network Provider, I cleared the cache and TikTok data from Settings. After that, I signed in again to my TikTok account, and then it finally worked, showing me content from Germany. You can do the same to see the content from the US. It would be best if you could find a SIM card from an American network provider.
If you have a SIM from a specific country on your smartphone, the content you post on TikTok will first be available to that country’s audience.
If you want to change the location of your TikTok account to be eligible for the creator fund, please apply. You can use this guide.
Update: Now, if you insert the SIM card of a specific country into your phone, even if the SIM is blocked or locked, TikTok will display the content relevant to the country for which you have a SIM card. Also, remember that if you tag a specific location on TikTok before posting it, the specific TikTok will target the audience of that location.
Change Location of TikTok on an Android Phone:
- Insert a SIM card from any mobile network provider in the target country.
- Goto Settings -> Application -> TikTok -> Storage & Cache -> Clear Cache -> Clear Storage.
- Now log in to TikTok using your credentials.
Change TikTok Country on iPhone:
The guide for iPhone is the same; all you need to do is insert a SIM card from the target country whose content you want to watch on TikTok. Instead of deleting the cache and app data, delete the app and reinstall it. Now log in with your email/phone number/username and password.
That’s all, being a computer scientist by profession. It baffles me how TikTok determines a user’s location. I couldn’t figure out where it was accessing my location without a SIM, even with location services turned off and VPN on. I would love to inquire about this from TikTok developers.
Also, check out: Guide to changing the country of the Google Play Store to access apps from other regions.
I can understand that not everyone has a spare SIM card from a different country. Yet, if you want to access content from other countries and publish your TikToks to the public or a specific country, you will need to obtain a SIM card from that country. I hope this guide has been helpful to you. If you have any questions, feel free to drop them in the comments. Moreover, if you have figured out another way to change the location of TikTok, please share it with us.
