How to delete your Snapchat account (2022)

For personal or privacy reasons, if you don’t want to continue using Snapchat you can permanently delete your account. This tutorial shows you how to deactivate and delete your Snapchat account from your iPhone, Android phone, or the web.

Consequences of deleting your Snapchat account

Here’s what happens after you delete your Snapchat account:

• Once your Snapchat account is deleted, you lose all your added friends, chats, Snaps, and Stories.
• Your Snapchat account settings, device data, and your location data with Snapchat are also deleted.
• Snapchat also says that deleting your account “revokes your access to any other Snap account entities.”
• You can no longer recover your account or its data and settings once your Snapchat account is permanently deleted (which is after 30 days of you placing the delete request).

Can I temporarily deactivate my Snapchat account?

Many social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram offer you the option to deactivate your account for as long as you like. When your account is deactivated, your profile, posts, comments, and details aren’t visible to anyone. Everything stays hidden. You can log in with your account details and reactivate your account anytime you like.

Some social media platforms like Twitter and Snapchat do not offer this flexibility of indefinite account deactivation. On Snapchat, when you follow the steps to delete your Snapchat account, it’s automatically deactivated for 30 days. After 30 days, your account will be deleted permanently. So, on Snapchat, you can deactivate your account only for one month. But remember that if you fail to reactivate your Snapchat account within 30 days, it will be deleted forever!

Check out: Our full account deletion series for Apple ID, Telegram, Tinder, and more.

Snapchat account is deactivated for 30 days or 180 days?

Official Snapchat support pages say you have 30 days to recover your deactivated account. The email you receive after placing an account deletion request also says 30 days.

However, in my testing, I found that you have 180 days to reactivate your deactivated account! I reached out to Snapchat official support via Twitter DM and received a response related to this inconsistency. They said it’s 30 days!

How to download your Snapchat data

Before permanently deleting your Snapchat account, you have the option to download your Snapchat data if you like.

Here’s how to do that:

1. Go to accounts.snapchat.com using a computer or phone browser and log in.
2. Once you’re logged in, click My Data.
3. See the list of every data you can download and click Submit Request.
4. Once your Snapchat data is ready to download, you’ll receive the link to download it on your verified email address added to your Snapchat account. The data will download as a ZIP file. You can easily unzip it on almost any major operating system, including iOS and macOS.

If your email address isn’t verified, open Snapchat > profile picture > settings icon from the top > Email.

Once you have downloaded your data, you can proceed to the Snapchat account portal and delete your account. If you haven’t received the email to download your data, please wait before requesting account deletion.

How to delete your Snapchat account

If you’re an iPhone user, you can delete your Snapchat account from the official iOS app or the website. If you’re an Android user, you’ll have to use a web browser to delete your Snapchat account. Here are both methods.

From iPhone

Follow these steps to delete your Snapchat account from your iOS device:

1) Open Snapchat and tap your profile picture or Bitmoji from the top.

2) Tap the settings icon from the top right.

3) Scroll to the bottom, and from under Account Actions, tap Delete Account.

4) Log in to your Snapchat account.

5) On the Delete Account page, confirm the username and make sure this is the Snapchat account you wish to delete. After that, enter your Snapchat password and tap Continue.

6) You have successfully deactivated your Snapchat account. After 30 days, it will be deleted automatically. But if you log in to Snapchat within these 30 days, it will cancel the account deletion.

From an Android device or computer

Follow these steps to delete your Snapchat account from an Android phone or computer:

1. Go to accounts.snapchat.com and log in to Snapchat.
2. Click Delete My Account.
3. Make sure the username is of the Snapchat account you’re trying to delete. After that, enter your Snapchat password.
4. Click Continue to deactivate your Snapchat account for 30 days. This Snapchat account will be automatically deleted permanently if you don’t log in to it within the next 30 days.

How to recover or reactivate your deleted Snapchat account

You can only recover your deactivated or deleted Snapchat account within 30 days of requesting account deletion. If those 30 days have already passed, you can’t recover your account. To keep using Snapchat, you can create a new account.

However, if the 30-day period isn’t over, here’s how to perform Snapchat recovery:

1. Open the Snapchat app and tap Log In.
2. Enter the username and password of the Snapchat account you had requested to delete. Note: You can’t use your Snapchat email to reactivate the deactivated account.
3. Tap Log In.
4. Tap Yes on the screen that says, “Your account is currently deactivated. You have n days left to reactivate your account before it’s deleted. Do you want to reactivate your account?”

How much time does it take to recover Snapchat account

Recovering or reactivating a deactivated Snapchat account can take up to 24 hours.

If your account isn’t reactivated immediately, you’ll see a popup saying, “Please wait a few moments for your account to be reactivated, then try logging in again. If you have verified your email address with Snapchat, we will let you know when your account is ready to use!”

You can log in after a few hours to reactivate your deleted Snapchat account.

Related tutorials:

• How to change your username and display name in Snapchat
• How to screenshot a Snap without sending a notification to the other user
• Steps to delete your Instagram account permanently