How to delete Telegram account
The instant messenger Telegram gained its popularity due to many factors and innovations it implemented. Besides, it is really accurate, intuitive and easy-to-operate application. There are no difficulties if you need to either register a Telegram account from scratch or delete Telegram for good.
Unfortunately, there is no any special button present in the messenger directly. The user first needs to ask a question how to delete the service. But when the answer is received, the task can be performed with a couple of clicks. Also, the process is the same for all OSs, both mobile and desktop.
Before proceeding to deletion of the Telegram account, note that this process is irreversible. The developers claim that they are a non-commerce company and thus have to value the space on their servers and cloud storages. They just can't afford keeping inactive accounts and data backups forever.
If you close your account, it will be permanently. All the data associated with it (contacts, messages, chats history and shared files) will be erased, and they can't be restored.
If you are completely sure that you won't need this service anymore, neither are you going to use the information kept by the application, you can delete it. There are two ways of doing that.
Setting the Telegram account to be closed automatically
Like it has already been mentioned, the developers will delete Telegram account themselves if there is no activity during a certain period. This period is set by default for 6 months. However, you can also use this option to delete this product yourself. Do the following:
Open the instant messenger on your smartphone or launch the desktop application on your PC. Below we will describe the process for both the mobile and desktop applications, as there are some differences in the look of the system windows and menus.
Tap or click the three lines icon at the top-left corner to open the main menu and go to 'Settings.
Select the Privacy and Security section.
Scroll the menu down to the Delete my account option.
You will see a period set by default. Change it to the minimum value — 1 month.
Save the changes and then sign out and just delete the application on all your computers and mobile devices. In 1 month the system itself will delete your account with Telegram permanently itself.
This option can be preferable, as the data will not be removed permanently at once, and you will have time to change your mind and get back if you wish.
To re-activate it before the end of that period, simply install the app and log in again with your phone number — the account is not suspended, no needs to request any activation codes or else.
Cancelling the Telegram account manually on a website
The second option is for those who want to cancel everything instantly.
To delete your Telegram account instantly, you need to do this on the dedicated Deactivation Page in the browser. It does not matter if you use your browser on PC or on mobile device.
Enter the phone number you used to register — make sure to enter it correctly and in international format, with the country code. Press Next.
The system will send you a confirmation code. Note that it will be sent into the application, not to your phone number by SMS. Keep at least one instance of the app with the active account you want to delete — you will remove it when you finish this procedure.
It will ask you to tell why you decided to leave. This field is optional, you can provide your feedback or ignore this option. Just press Done.
The last step is the confirmation from your side. When you press “Yes, delete my account”, the process will be completed.
If you still have the application running on your machine, you will see it offering to create a new account, as your previous ID won't exist anymore.
After that, if you decide to get back to this service in future, you can use the same phone number for registration. However, you will become a completely new user with no traces of past chats in the application. As for your previous contacts, they might keep copies of those texts and files you sent to them in their instant messengers if they did not delete them.
as you see, you can deactivate Telegram with a couple of clicks.
