Can a Hong Kong Samsung who doesn't support Gemini work in another supported country?

[ian31]

Hello,

Living in Hong Kong, I will not have access to Gemini Assistant in the new s25. However if I go to France, Germany with this same phone bought from Hong Kong, will the Gemini suddenly work ? Or is the non availability is permanently implemented on  the Chinese / Hong Kong phones whether I go abroad or not and is there a way to bypass it? 

Thanks.

[TechZilla]

Does it show in the app store?

[arianwen27]

If you sideload the app, you can probs get it working. Before it came to the UK I sidelpaded it and used it early. If you can download it but it says you aren't allowed to use it, a vpn might work

[ian31]

Just fyk Gemini assistant is the Gemini chatbox when you long press power button (I think). Not the app on itself.

[ian31]

sadly not

[Yy4]

Hi, yes it seems like it will work. My friend who owns an s23U (from hk) went on a Thailand trip where he could use all Gemini related features - gemini live, gemini assistant, google search AI overview, etc. When he came back to HK, it stopped working saying "Gemini isn't supported in your country" kinda message. 

So to answer your question, if u went to France with an HK S25, yes you'd be able to use Gemini.

But I thought since they integrated Gemini into Bixby (correct me if I'm wrong) in S25 series, it would now work. If not, ... screw google, or whoever that's making it impossible to use in HK. 

Also fyi, sideloading the app doesn't work at all as the country itself is locked out of the product. Once google knows that ure in HK (and it will coz u can't use Gemini app locally anyways) it will just say the mentioned "Gemini isn't supported in your country" msg.

How do I know? I am painfully trying it regularly to see if it's finally supported. 🥹