How to Delete Your Twitter Account

Twitter is a lot like a real-time town square. It’s public, letting everyone around the world gather to share their thoughts and communicate with each other. But that comes with a few negatives.

In recent years, we’ve seen the platform turn into a place where hate speech and harassment can’t be controlled too easily. Twitter might be on a path to fix these problems, but users are still experiencing them all too frequently. So maybe you’re tired of Twitter and want to take the nearest exit.

Ready to leave Twitter? It takes only a handful of steps, and then you’re living Twitter-free.

How to delete your Twitter account

From anywhere on www.Twitter.com, click your profile picture icon in the top right corner

Select ‘Settings and privacy’ from the drop-down menu

Choose ‘Account’ from the menu bar on the left side

Scroll to the bottom, select the blue-colored ‘Deactivate’ button’

Don’t worry, your Twitter account isn’t gone just yet

By the way, if you have an iOS or Android device, these steps aren’t any different

Go into the app’s settings, find the ‘Account’ section, and choose ‘Deactivate your account’

Twitter doesn’t want you to leave this fast, so it gives an overview of how an account gets deleted

The service deactivates your account for 30 days; during this grace period, you can change your mind and return to business as usual without losing anything

If the 30-day window lapses, all data relating to your account gets removed forever

Hit the ‘Deactivate’ button one last time, and now your account is scheduled for deletion

As Twitter’s countdown goes forward, the platform strips your profile from various areas. Yet you could still see it on search engines like Google and Bing. Twitter only completely cleanses your profile from its own system.

Upon the 30-day window’s close, Twitter will release your username back into the atmosphere; therefore, don’t be surprised if another account with the same username shows up on the platform shortly after your departure. If you plan on returning to Twitter later on, you’ll need to claim a new username.

Another tip worth remembering: deleting your old tweets might be the better option. It’ll allow you to keep your username but start from scratch.