How to delete your Instagram account from your mobile device

Discover how to delete your Instagram account or temporarily deactivate it, and everything step by step easily from any device.
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February 18, 2025
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Have you considered a fresh start in your digital life and wish to turn the page and forget your past on Instagram? We will explain the two options available for deleting your Instagram account: temporarily and permanently.

How to delete your Instagram account from mobile

Since the update of Meta-owned applications with the introduction of the new Accounts Center, the process of deactivating or deleting your social media accounts has been simplified. You can do it from an Android or an Apple device, but there are slight differences in the interface.

How to Delete Your Instagram Account on Android

The steps you need to follow are:

  • Go to your Instagram profile.
  • Tap more options and then Accounts Center.
  • Select the Personal Data option.
  • Click on Account Ownership and Control and then on Deactivation or Deletion.
  • Choose the account you want to temporarily deactivate or permanently delete.
  • Tap Deactivate Account (temporary) or Delete Account (permanent) and then click on Continue.

Delete your instagram account from Android
Delete your instagram account from Android

How to Delete Your Instagram Account on iPhone

If you use a mobile device with an iOS operating system, in other words, an iPhone, the steps to follow are the same:

Delete Instagram account from an iPhone
Delete your Instagram account from iPhone

After selecting one of the options (delete or deactivate), Instagram will ask you a couple of questions regarding the reason why you want to leave the social network. After answering them, you only need to enter your account password to verify your identity, and you will have deactivated or deleted your Instagram account.

What deactivating your Instagram account means

From that moment, you will be invisible to all other users present on the application.

This means that your photos, comments, and likes will not be visible to other users. Additionally, they will not be able to mention you, tag you, or anything similar: in all aspects, you will have erased your presence there. To reactivate it, you simply need to log back into that Instagram profile, and all your content will become visible again.

Important: temporary deactivation can only be performed once per week. Otherwise, Instagram may suspect that your account has been hacked or that a bot is using your account.

What permanently deleting your Instagram account entails

First, you need to know that you must be sure of the decision you have made.

Deleting an Instagram account can have implications that you will not be able to reverse later, because if you choose to permanently delete it, all your photos, posts, and information will disappear from the platform. Therefore, before starting, you should download everything you want to keep.

After selecting this option, Instagram will remove all your presence from the network 30 days after your request, although you could re-register with the same username from the deleted account unless someone else is already using it. However, if your account has been deleted for community guidelines violations, it is unlikely you will be able to register with the same username.

In any case, the process of deleting an account can take up to 90 days. From Meta, they may keep copies of your content in storage for security reasons, in case of events causing data loss. All this information is available in their Privacy Policy.

Remember, the most significant difference between deactivating an account or deleting it is the ability to access the information and profile again. When you choose to recover it after deactivation, you will be able to have your entire Feed exactly as you saw it last. However, if you delete it, you will have to say goodbye forever to all the work and time you invested in your profile (unless you decide to start from scratch again).

If you want to permanently delete your account, we recommend making a backup of the profile. This way, you can download all the posts and interactions from your account without losing anything.

But why do we decide to delete our Instagram account?

A classic question throughout the history of social networks is how to unsubscribe from them. The truth is, despite how strange it may seem, there are several important reasons that may lead individuals to make such a radical decision as deleting their Instagram account.

Of course, privacy is one of them, but there is also the fact of having violated some of the platform’s terms of use. Some decide to unsubscribe due to the amount of advertising on the platform, lack of use, to create a new account, or even due to cyberbullying issues.

We hope this article has helped you better understand this social network and, of course, learn how to deactivate or delete your Instagram account.

Photo: Depositphotos

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Content Manager in Marketing4eCommerce
Content Manager in Marketing4eCommerce, which translates to: writer, editor, and absolute fan of generating images with AI.

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