'Pokémon Go' tips and cheats: How to change teams and change your name
You can change your name only once in Pokémon Go, and it's not easy to change your team. Actually, it's kind of a pain. But if you insist on doing it, read carefully: We've spelled out everything you need to do to change your name and team in Pokémon Go.
Changing your name is easy, so let's start with how to change your team.
How to change your team in Pokémon Go: Tough. You need to contact Niantic support.
New players to Pokémon Go might want to think carefully about which team they choose to join when they hit trainer level five and visit a gym for the first time. You're given one chance to change it, and only one chance.
According to developer Niantic's Pokémon Go blog, officially, you're not allowed to change teams at all. Maybe Niantic wanted to post that notice in order to lessen the load on its customer support staff, because customer support is the only way to change your team.
If you click this link, you'll open a support ticket on the Pokémon Go blog, after which you can request a team change. According to reports, Niantic will only accommodate this request if you're a low-level trainer because the request is meant to help people who chose the wrong team by mistake.
You're going to have to give Niantic a bunch of information, including your operating system version, device manufacturer and device model. If you're going to pursue this avenue, it might be wise to gather that information before you sit down to submit your request.
It may be easier to start a new character in Pokémon Go than to request a team change through Niantic.
If you have to be a low-level trainer around level five in order to switch teams through Niantic support, it means you're not very far into the game. You certainly don't have attacker and defender squads ready, haven't had much time to worry about catch odds, and unless you started playing during Halloween you probably don't have a lot of candy to give up.
Unless you've had the luck to capture some rare or legendary Pokémon and don't want to lose them, you can effectively change teams in just a few minutes by creating a sock-puppet Google account, signing in with those new credentials and choosing the right team when it's time.
Be aware that Niantic requests in Pokémon Go's terms of service that you play with a single trainer instead of having multiple accounts, so best practice would be to abandon your first trainer, after starting up a second one.
How to change your name in Pokémon Go: Easy. You can change your name right in the Pokémon Go app.
Just go to Settings, then tap "Change Nickname" and complete all the pages that follow. Pay heed to the warning before you begin the process, however. You may only change your name once.
