Does the region of the phone affect how certain apps work?

[libra89]

I tried a Latin American variant of the 532, and even though my sim was United States-English, some of the apps didn't work right at all. I changed the language of the phone to English-United States and I also deleted the extra keyboards too. GroupMe wouldn't even load at all. It showed that I wasn't in any groups and they never loaded. However, when I put my sim in an American phone, GroupMe worked just fine. (For reference, I am an American who lives in the United States)

So does the region/origin of the phone affect how certain apps work, and if they will work at all?

 

[libra89]

Has this happened to anyone else? This kind of thing makes me rethink buying unlocked phones from other countries.