How to Delete Your WhatsApp Account on Android, iOS, and KaiOS

Jan. 8, 2021

With therecent 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.

Delete Your WhatsApp Account

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.

1. Open WhatsApp andhead 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.

2. From the Settings page,tap on Account. On the Accounts page, you’ll see various privacy and security settings. The last option on the list is‘Delete my account’. Tap on it to proceed further.

3. Once you’re on the ‘Delete my account’ page, WhatsApp will ask you toconfirm your phone number. Enter the phone number you used to create your account and press ‘Delete my account’ button.

4. Soon after you tap on ‘Delete my account’, the companywill ask the reason to delete your account. You can choose one of the predefined reasons or enter your reason in the ‘Other’ section. After adding the reason, press Delete my account twice. Your account will now get deleted and you can safely uninstall the app from your phone.

5. Open WhatsApp on your iPhone andswitch to the Settings section from the bottom navigation bar. From Settings,tap on Accountto access your account’s settings page andchoose ‘Delete my Account’.

6. You should now enter your phone number linked to your WhatsApp account andtap on ‘Delete My Account’. After the account deletion process is complete, you can uninstall the app from your iPhone.

7. If you’re a JioPhone user (or any other phone running KaiOS), here’s how you can delete your account. Open WhatsApp andpress Options buttonon the right side. From this page, navigate toSettings -> Account -> Delete my account.

8. After confirming your phone number, pressDelete-> 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, itwill delete information shared with other Facebook companies.

On its FAQ page, WhatsApp clarifies that copies of ‘some materials such as log records’ may remain in its database. However, the remaining data is disassociated from personal identifiers. The company also points out that it may keep your information for legal issues, terms violations, or harm prevention efforts.

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 useSignal or Telegramas analternative 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.

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 ofbest secure messaging appsto 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 todelete FacebookandRemove Instagram.The collect way more data than WhatsApp, and no one should be using them if they are concerned about their privacy.

Subin writes about consumer tech, software, and security. He secretly misses the headphone jack while pretending he’s better off with the wireless freedom.