If you’ve had enough of Twitter and are planning on permanently deleting your Twitter account, iDownloadBlog has you covered.
For starters, know that you cannot delete a Twitter account outright. Instead, you must first deactivate your account, which basically puts it in a queue for permanent deletion from Twitter.
But unlike online services such as Whatsapp and Viber, Twitter’s deactivation process is unavailable on mobile devices and must be done by accessing Twitter’s web interface on a computer.
In this tutorial, we’ll take you step by step through deactivating your Twitter account, lay out what happens to your data and tell you about a few other things you should be aware of.
Twitter and data retention policy
Like many other Internet services, Twitter’s account deletion process will first deactivate your account and give you a grace period of 30 days during which you can reactivate your account simply by logging back in.
Until your data is permanently deleted, it won’t be available for use. Once the 30 days are over, the account along with its underlying data gets permanently deleted on Twitters’ servers.
Consider changing your email address and user name on file prior to account deletion. Doing so lets you create a new account at a later stage with the same email or user name as your deleted account.
You don’t need to deactivate the account to change your user name or Twitter account URL, as explained in the following section.
How to make your Twitter user name or email address available for re-use before deactivating your account
Step 1: Visit Twitter’s Settings page in a desktop web browser, using the drop-down menu under the profile icon of the web interface.
Step 2: In the user name field, choose a new user name.
Step 3: In the email address field, change your email address to a new one.
NOTE: It is of utmost importance to confirm the new email address via a link Twitter will send to the provided email address.
Changing your Twitter user name and password will not change any of your @replies and followers. Keep in mind that your email and user name will now be available to use on a new account if you sign up again during the 30-day deactivation period.
You can now safely proceed with deactivation, as listed below.
How to delete your Twitter account
Step 1: Log in to your Twitter account on your computer by visiting the web interface at twitter.com in a web browser. If you’re already logged in to Twitter in a browser, follow this account deletion link and proceed to step 6.
Step 2: Visit the Account Settings webpage by clicking on your profile picture at the top right corner of the web interface.
Step 3: Now select Settings.
Step 4: Scroll to the bottom of the webpage and choose Deactivate My Account.
Step 5: A webpage with a Deactivate USER NAME button will pop up, as show below.
Click the link to continue.
Step 6: Enter your Twitter password to confirm pending account deletion.
Your account will get removed from Twitter within a few minutes, but some content may be viewable on twitter.com “for a few days after deactivation,” according to Twitter.
“We have no control over content indexed by search engines like Google,” cautions the company, meaning tweets from your deleted account might still appear in Google Search.
If your old tweets continue to surface on Google as cached content, send Google a request to take down your information.
Additional steps after deleting your Twitter account
For starters, you should uninstall Twitter’s iOS and OS X apps from your devices.
You should also remove your account from the Twitter section of iOS’s Settings app and from the Internet Accounts section of OS X’s System Preferences.
Lastly, in order to prevent apps that you previously authorized to access your Twitter from reactivating your account before the 30 days are over, you must revoke access by visiting Twitter’s Applications section using your desktop browser.
Just click the Revoke button next to each authorized app. Some connected apps, like Facebook, might show the Disconnect button instead.
How to reactivate your Twitter account
To reactivate your Twitter account at any point during the 30-day period, simply log in to twitter.com via your browser with your user name and password. Once the 30 days are over, your account and data will be permanently deleted from Twitter’s servers and the company won’t be able to bring it back.
Recommended tutorials
You might appreciate these related tutorials and resources:
- How to delete Vine account
- How to delete WhatsApp account
- How to delete Viber account
- How to delete Facebook account
- How to delete Instagram account
- How to delete Snapchat account or change your user name
- How to deactivate Apple ID account
- How to remove child account from iCloud Family Sharing
- How to remove phone number from iMessage
Submit your feedback and tutorial ideas at tips@iDownloadBlog.com.
