Tip: This is how you delete a WhatsApp account

Whatever your motivation, more and more people are choosing to delete WhatsApp. In this article, we’ll explain how to send your profile to the trash once and for all.

Remove WhatsApp in 4 steps

WhatsApp deletion is permanent. In other words, you can’t undo it and once you hit the delete button, all your conversations are gone. Are you sure of your case? Then follow the directions below to delete your WhatsApp account:

Your WhatsApp profile will now be deleted. This means that your account information, profile picture, chats and group conversations will be deleted. Do you sync WhatsApp via iCloud? Then that backup will also be deleted.

It can take up to 90 days to erase all of your WhatsApp data. During this period, your information may still be on the servers of the chat app. WhatsApp always saves data a little longer in case you encounter problems while updating, for example. Data that you have sent, such as a photo to a friend, will also not be deleted. So the recipient can still see the photo.

However, it is virtually impossible to delete all your data from WhatsApp. Log files, which for example state which accounts are talking to each other, are kept. WhatsApp does ensure that this information cannot be traced back to your profile.

Alternative chat apps

WhatsApp is by far the most popular, but by no means the only chat app. Signal, Telegram and Wire are some excellent alternatives. These applications put the privacy of users more in the foreground by, for example, not keeping track of who you are talking to and what about. You can read exactly how this works in our guide with alternatives to WhatsApp.

• WhatsApp on the Apple Watch: this is how you send apps from your wrist

• Explanation: Import animated stickers into WhatsApp

• Tip: This is how you transfer WhatsApp conversations from Android to iPhone

• Opinion: Making WhatsApp less encrypted is a recipe for misery

• (Video) calling with WhatsApp Desktop now possible: this is how it works