Living in a country with no official Nintendo support? Worse still – you couldn’t download the Nintendo Switch Online app, because it’s “not available in your country”. It isn’t the end of the world, because we have a guide for you on getting the app!

What’s Nintendo Switch Online?

Nintendo Switch Online is a smartphone companion app (iOS/Android) for Nintendo Switch. With the app, you can easily invite friends to matches in various online multiplayer games, use online voice chat, and check your Splatoon 2 stats in SplatNet 2.

As of 2017, the Nintendo Switch Online’s functionality is available in a limited scale and is free to use. When the full service begins in early 2018, there will be more features, and users will have to pay to use the service.

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Why isn’t it available in [insert country here]?

If you’re living in a country where Nintendo doesn’t have an official presence, or there’s a distributor representing Nintendo in your country, unfortunately Nintendo has made Nintendo Switch Online unavailable in your country.

Unsupported countries may include the following – Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, Uruguay, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, China, India, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.

The primary reason is of course – handling payments. There’s no way for Nintendo to accept payments for Nintendo Switch Online and the Nintendo eShop in unsupported territories, since they don’t have an office in those places.

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Okay. Is there anything else I need before downloading the app?

Make sure you’ve created a Nintendo Account, and set its region to a supported country on the registration form. Check out our step-by-step guide for Nintendo Account here.

So how do I download Nintendo Switch Online?

Depending on the OS you are using (iOS or Android), you’ll have to take slightly different steps.

Android Users

Note: We’re updating this section in progress.

The APK for Nintendo Switch Online can be downloaded from a mirror website. You’ll need to enable non-Play Store installations before installing the app.

iOS Users

Unfortunately, the route isn’t so straightforward for users on iOS, but we’ll show the way!

First – you will have to create a new Apple ID. You can do it on Apple’s website here. Set your country to the United States.

After you’ve created your new Apple ID, you’ll have to sign out of your current account from the App Store first. Go to the App Store, select your profile image, and scroll all the way to the bottom to find the “Sign out” button. Once you have signed out, login to your new Apple ID and you can download Nintendo Switch Online by clicking here.

Before your download starts, you may be asked to enter more information for your new Apple ID, such as a billing address. Search for the address of any government building or McDonald’s in the United States, and fill it as your billing address. For billing information, select “none”. If the “none” option is absent, you may have to purchase an App Store code online to enter for verification purposes.

After downloading Nintendo Switch Online, sign out of your new Apple ID on the App Store and login to your original Apple ID.