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Instagram Now Lets You Delete Your Account From the iOS App. Here's How

You could previously deactivate your account through your iPhone's app, but your information was still on Instagram's servers.

Zachary McAuliffe Staff writer
Zach began writing for CNET in November, 2021 after writing for a broadcast news station in his hometown, Cincinnati, for five years. You can usually find him reading and drinking coffee or watching a TV series with his wife and their dog.
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Zachary McAuliffe
2 min read
Instagram logo on an iPhone

Instagram now lets iOS app users delete their account from within the app.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Instagram now lets iPhone and iPad users delete their account directly from within the app on their Apple devices. If you wanted to delete your Instagram account before, you had to do it from a desktop or mobile web browser. 

"We want to give people more ways to control their experience and time spent on Instagram," a spokesperson from Meta, Instagram's parent company, told CNET.

Here's how to delete your account from within the iOS and iPadOS apps.

1. Open Instagram on your iOS device and log into your account.

2. Tap your profile icon in the bottom-right corner of your screen.

3. Tap the hamburger icon in the top-right corner of your screen.

4. Tap Settings

5. Tap Account.

6. Tap Delete account.

7. The next screen will ask if you want to deactivate or delete your account, with a warning that deactivating your account is temporary but deleting it is permanent. Tap Delete account.

Instagram menu to deactivate or delete your account

Instagram warns users that deleting your account is permanent.

Screenshot by Zach McAuliffe/CNET

Instagram won't immediately delete your account, though. If you change your mind, you have 30 days to stop the deletion.

Previously you could deactivate your account via the iOS/iPadOS app, but your data was still on Instagram's servers. Now, if you choose to delete your account using either app, your information should be deleted from Instagram's servers as well.

Apple rolled out new App Store guidelines earlier in 2022, which said apps that support account creation must also allow users to initiate the process to delete accounts, too.

For more Instagram news, check out how Instagram fumbled its moderation of abortion content, the new age verification tool Instagram is testing and how to apply Instagram's new sensitive content controls

Watch this: How to Delete or Disable Your Instagram Account