Snapchat is a popular platform for sharing photos with friends, communicating with classmates, or staying in touch with family. But eventually, whether you decide to move to another social media platform or want to reduce your digital footprint, you may want to delete your account.
Unfortunately, it may not be immediately obvious how to delete your Snapchat account. To clear up confusion, we’ve compiled this guide on deleting your Snapchat account and properly backing up your data beforehand.
Key Takeaways
- There are only a few easy steps involved in deleting your Snapchat account.
- The exact process differs depending on the device you’re using to delete the account.
- Once you delete your account, there’s a 30-day time frame where your account is only deactivated. When that period ends, the account gets permanently deleted.
- When deleting Snapchat (or any social media accounts), you should download your data beforehand to avoid losing everything.
How To Delete Your Snapchat Account
The exact steps for deleting your account depend whether you’re using an Apple device, an Android device, or a browser on a computer.
Deleting Your Snapchat Account on a Web Browser
- Log into your Snapchat account via the accounts portal.
- Click Delete my account.
- Provide your username and password, and press Continue to confirm the deletion.
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Deleting Your Snapchat Account on an Apple Device
- Load up the Snapchat app and click on your profile icon.
- On your profile, press the Settings gear icon.
- Scroll to Account Actions and press Delete Account.
- You’re asked to log into the accounts portal with your username and password.
- On the Delete Account page, tap Continue to confirm the deletion.
Deleting Your Snapchat Account on an Android Device
While you can delete your account from the Snapchat app on an Apple device, this isn’t true for Android devices.
To delete your account on an Android, you’ll need to use your mobile browser and follow the steps outlined in the Deleting Your Snapchat Account on a Web Browser section of this guide.
What To Know About the Deletion Process
The deletion process doesn’t happen immediately. There’s a 30-day deactivation period before your Snapchat account is fully deleted.
If you want, you can reactivate your account within this period. To reactivate the account, just sign in. But if this period passes and you don’t reactivate the account, the account gets permanently deleted.
Also, while Snapchat removes most of your data once you delete the account, there are some details it keeps. This includes information about your purchases and when you accepted the Snapchat Terms and Conditions.
If you have any privacy concerns, check out the Snapchat Privacy Policy for a complete look at the information the company collects and keeps.
How To Download Your Snapchat Data
Before deleting your account, consider backing up your data by downloading it from Snapchat. Some examples of the data you’re able to download include your:
- Login history and account information
- Saved chat history
- Snap history
- Purchase and shop history
- Snapchat support history
- Search history
- Memories
- Friends
- Location
- Bitmoji
If you don’t download this data, you’ll lose it forever. If you want to preserve it, follow these steps:
- Visit http://accounts.snapchat.com/ on your computer or mobile device and log in to your account.
- Click My Data.
- Choose the type of data you want to download. Then, select whether you want to receive all data or just data in a specific date range.
- Confirm your email address and click Submit.
- Snapchat sends you an email with a download link to get your data.
Conclusion
Snapchat is a popular platform for sharing photos, videos, and messages, but there are many reasons why someone may want to delete their account. Thankfully, it’s a straightforward process and takes only a few steps. That said, make sure to back up your data before closing your account.
If you want to learn more about the platform, check out our guides on using Snapchat’s new AI image tool and preventing Snapchat from using your face in ads.
