In compliance with Apple’s guidelines, Instagram adds account deletion option to iOS

Apple’s updated App Store Review guidelines instructs that all apps that allow you to create accounts must also include support to delete these accounts in-app as well. So far, if you wanted to delete your Instagram account, you would have to log into the platform from web browser on desktop or mobile.

To comply with Apple’s guidelines, Instagram has now added support for account deletion from the app on iOS. Before this was rolled out, you could deactivate your account through the app, but that did not delete your data from the servers. Also, the app did not offer any information about the full deletion option, as TechCrunch points out. This led to many users deactivating their accounts instead of being able to delete them fully.

A Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch in a statement that the company wanted to give people more ways to control their experience on Instagram and thus has rolled out the option to delete their account in ‘Settings’ on iOS. The option to temporarily disable the account before permanently deleting it is still available.

If you decide to delete your account, you have 30 days to change your mind before Instagram removes it for good. This too is in accordance with Apple’s guidelines, the company finds it “acceptable” if account deletion takes time once initiated.

But this time-period also makes sense because it gives the user plenty of time to change their mind between deactivating their account and permanently deleting it. If, over this 30-day period, the user launches the app, the account will no longer be deleted.

Many users might take this 30-day period to take a break off the platform or cool off before reconsidering their decision. Twitter too has a similar cooling-off period between initiating an account deletion and it being carried forward.

Apple’s new guidelines became mandatory for all apps from June 30. The company had informed all developers in May that apps that do not comply with these rules might face review delays when they submit updates.

Apple’s guidelines list that if an app supports account creation, it must also offer account deletion within the app. Also, an app may not require a user to enter personal information to function unless it is “directly relevant to the core functionality of the app or required by law”.

Apple made it clear that support for the deactivation of accounts is not enough and that apps should have the option to delete the entire account record along with all personal data associated with it.

Also Read: Instagram may soon share your video posts as Reels

Also Read: NFTs arrive on Facebook; creators can cross-post on Instagram