If you’re stepping away from Facebook as much as possible you’ve probably deleted your Facebook and Instagram accounts already. Read on for how to permanently delete your WhatsApp account.
Whether it’s the latest news about Facebook’s controversial practices that has you considering cutting the social media company out of your life, or you’ve been thinking about it for a while, it’s easy to delete your WhatsApp account.
Unlike Instagram where you have to delete your account from a Mac or PC, Facebook allows users to delete their WhatsApp accounts directly from the iOS or Android app.
Before you make your decision, it’s important to know that following these steps will:
- Delete your account from WhatsApp.
- Erase your message history.
- Delete you from all of your WhatsApp groups.
- Delete your Google Drive backup.
How to permanently delete your WhatsApp account
- Open WhatsApp on your iPhone or other smartphone
- Tap the vertical … in the top right corner for “More Options”
- Tap Settings → Account → Delete Account
- Enter your full phone number including international prefix
- Tap Delete my account
Here are a few more details about deleting your WhatsApp account from the company’s support document:
If you delete your account:
- You can’t regain access to your account.
- It may take up to 90 days to delete data stored in backup systems. Your information isn’t accessible on WhatsApp during this time.
- It doesn’t affect the information other users have relating to you, such as their copy of the messages you sent them.
- Copies of some material (e.g., log records) may remain in our database but are disassociated from personal identifiers.
- For legal purposes (e.g., to address fraud and other illegal activity), we may preserve your information. Please refer to the Law and Protection section of our Privacy Policy for more information.
- Your personal information shared with the other Facebook Companies will also be deleted.
For more help getting the most out of your Apple devices, check out our how to guide as well as the following articles:
- How to deactivate or delete your Facebook account or change privacy settings on iPhone
- How to delete or temporarily disable your Instagram account
- How to delete lists in Reminders on iPhone and iPad
- How to adjust brightness on Apple Watch
- How to recycle electronics of any brand at Apple, Best Buy, and Staples
- How to turn off FaceTime on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac
- How to use Tap to Talk with Walkie-Talkie on Apple Watch
- How to customize LTE settings on iPhone and iPad
