With the recent changes in privacy policy, WhatsApp demands you to share data with Facebook and its family of companies. Starting from the 8th of February, WhatsApp will force you to accept the new changes or lock you out of your account. The worst part is that you can’t opt-out of this intrusive policy unless you’re living in a country which is part of the European Union. So, in light of this new policy, if you’ve been thinking of deleting your WhatsApp account, there has never been a better time, and here’s how you do it.
Given the wide scale of WhatsApp, we’ve added separate set of instructions for deleting your account from Android, iPhone, and KaiOS (JioPhone). Feel free to skip to the part you need based on the phone you use.
- Delete Your WhatsApp Account on Android
- Delete Your WhatsApp Account on iOS
- Delete Your WhatsApp Account on KaiOS
- What Happens After You Delete Your WhatsApp Account
- Frequently Asked Questions
Delete Your WhatsApp Account on Android
- Open WhatsApp and head to Settings. You can do this by tapping on the vertical three dots icon present in the top right corner, followed by choosing Settings in the dropdown menu.
Delete Your WhatsApp Account on iOS
Open WhatsApp on your iPhone and switch to the Settings section from the bottom navigation bar. From Settings, tap on Account to access your account’s settings page and choose ‘Delete my Account’.
If you’re a JioPhone user (or any other phone running KaiOS), here’s how you can delete your account. Open WhatsApp and press Options button on the right side. From this page, navigate to Settings -> Account -> Delete my account.
After confirming your phone number, press Delete-> Delete. WhatsApp will now remove your account on request.
After you choose to delete your account, you can’t regain access to it. WhatsApp will take up to 90 days to complete the account deletion process. While the company won’t delete messages you sent in groups and chats thus far, it will delete information shared with other Facebook companies.
1. Why should I delete WhatsApp?
From February 8, WhatsApp demands you to share data with Facebook and its family of companies. Moreover, you can’t use WhatsApp without agreeing to this new policy. In a nutshell, it is better to delete WhatsApp and regain control of your privacy on the internet.
You can use Signal or Telegram as an alternative to WhatsApp. Both of these apps offer a ton of features and are arguably better than WhatsApp. In fact, WhatsApp uses Signal’s algorithm for end-to-end encryption.
3. Will uninstalling WhatsApp delete my account?
No, uninstalling WhatsApp doesn’t delete your account. You will have to delete your account from Settings.
I would recommend moving to Signal for staying connected with your friends and family without compromising your privacy. You can check out our list of best secure messaging apps to find the best option for you.
Yes, deleting your WhatsApp account will remove data shared with other Facebook companies.
We hope this guide helped you delete your WhatsApp account and free yourself from surveillance capitalism. While you are at it, don’t forget to delete Facebook and Remove Instagram. The collect way more data than WhatsApp, and no one should be using them if they are concerned about their privacy.
