Want to use Google Now but don’t live in an area that Google deemed worthy of having it enabled? Read on for an easy, non-jailbreak way of forcing Google Now to work in any country.
When the Big G updated its Google Search app with Google Now for iPhone, everyone sat up and took notice. One of the biggest reasons to choose Android over iOS coming to the latter mobile operating system is something of a big deal, and Google has obviously come to the conclusion that it doesn’t weaken Android’s hand too much.
During all the excitement, what we all seemed to forget was that not everyone can actually access Google Now. If you happen to live in the right country, say the United States or UK, then you’re good to go. If you happen to live in the wrong one though, you’re out of luck. That is, you’re out of luck unless you’re jailbroken and install the GoogleNowEnabler tweak we told you about yesterday to enable Google Now outside US (and other countries). You’ll be facing a screen as show below if Google Now isn’t supported in your country:
Obviously, you don’t want that. You want Google Now, right now!
As we found out, there is another way around it. If you are not jailbroken, and want to access Google Now, simply changing the country that your iPhone thinks it is living in does the trick.
In order to make that particular brand of magic happen, simply follow the steps given below:
Step 1: Head on over to the Settings.app, and tap General.
Step 2: In here, you’ll be wanting to tap International and finally the Region Format option.
Step 3: Inside here, simply change the setting from your location to one that supports Google Now, such as the United States. Once that’s done, you’re all set and Google Now should be available inside the Google Search app.
Step 4: Success!
Of course, by doing this all your formats will be wrong, so phone numbers may not display as you’d like and whatnot, but it’s certainly an option if all you want to do is give Google Now a try for a short while.
With many complaining of poor battery life once Google Now starts monitoring its location constantly, it’s debatable whether you’ll want to use it for an extended period of time, anyway!
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