Delete your short.talk account

The steps

In the app (iPhone or Android)

1. Open You, then Delete account.
2. Enter your PIN (or type DELETE if you never set one) and confirm.

On the website

1. Sign in at short.talk/in with your mobile number and the code we send.
2. Open Settings → Security, then Delete my account.
3. Enter your PIN and confirm.

Forgotten your PIN? Sign in with your number and choose Forgot PIN. For your safety a reset waits a few days before it takes effect; once it has, you can delete the account.

What happens, and when

• At once: you're signed out on every device, your live topics pause so nobody can start a new chat, and notifications stop.
• For 7 days: signing in again lets you choose Keep my account, which brings everything back as it was, or download your data first.
• After 7 days: the account and its data are erased for good.

What's deleted

• Your topics (QR codes), with every conversation on them: messages, photos, videos, documents, calls, quick questions, topic photos and broadcasts.
• The conversations you started on other people's topics.
• Your profile name and photo, saved replies, away message and folders.
• Your sessions, trusted devices, notification addresses and settings, and your plan's records with us.
• Your devices leave every end-to-end encrypted chat, so nothing new can be read on them.

What stays, and why

• An emptied account record, whose phone hash is replaced by one no number can match, so the account can't be found or restored.
• Your topics' codes, emptied, so a code you printed is never given to someone else.
• Conversations you blocked, emptied of every message, so the block keeps working against abuse.
• Encrypted backups roll over within 8 weeks, and then nothing of the account remains.
• Messages you sent to others stay in their copy of the conversation until they delete it, as with any messaging app.

If you pay for a plan

A plan bought in the Android app is cancelled with Google Play for you when the account is erased. A plan bought on an iPhone can only be cancelled by you: open Settings → your name → Subscriptions on the iPhone and cancel short.talk before deleting.