Signal signal.org How to delete your Signal account
On the phone where you set up Signal, open Settings > Account > Delete Account, enter your phone number and confirm. Signal can't delete it for you by email. Deleting only Signal Desktop data doesn't delete the account.
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- signal.org
- Type
- Delete an account
- Last updated
Reviewed by Anthon Wansland
Head of Product & Co-Founder
Serus is a privacy company with paid tools to find and remove your personal data. This guide shows the free way to do it yourself.
Step by step
- 1
Open Signal on your original phone
Use the phone you set Signal up on. Signal says it must be working on that phone to change or delete the account.
- 2
Go to Settings > Account
Open your Settings, then choose Account.
- 3
Tap Delete Account
Choose Delete Account.
- 4
Enter your phone number and confirm
Type your phone number when asked and confirm. Deleting the account removes your number from being recognized as a Signal user.
Watch out for
- Signal says it cannot delete your account for you and doesn't accept deletion requests by email.
- Deleting Signal Desktop data or uninstalling the app only affects that computer. Your account stays active on your phone and any linked devices.
- Without the original phone you can't delete the account yourself. It is deleted after 120 days of inactivity.
- Deleting the account removes your number from being recognized as a Signal user. Messages already delivered to other people stay on their devices.
Sources checked: support.signal.org, signal.org
Last verified against the official page:
Other ways to do it
- 1
Remove Signal data from a computer
This does not delete your account. In Signal Desktop, open Preferences (Mac: Signal > Settings, Windows: File > Preferences, Linux: File > Settings), select General and choose Delete application data. It only clears messages and data on that computer.
- 2
No access to the original phone
Signal can't delete the account by email or other methods because it can't verify the account is yours. If you no longer have the phone, the account is deleted after 120 days of inactivity.
What stays out there
Deleting your Signal account stops your number from showing up as a Signal user. Your phone number can still sit in other places: caller-ID databases, people-search sites and marketing lists that collected it elsewhere.
Deleting an account stops new data at that one company. It doesn't touch copies that data brokers and people-search sites already hold, or old search results. Serus finds where your details are listed and removes them. See how Serus protects you.
Frequently asked
Does uninstalling Signal delete my account?
Uninstalling Signal Desktop only removes its local data from that computer. Your Signal account stays active on your phone until you delete it in Settings > Account > Delete Account.
Can I delete my Signal account by email?
No. Signal says it can't verify that an account belongs to you by email, so you have to delete it yourself in the app on the phone you set it up on.
What if I lost the phone I registered Signal on?
Signal accounts are deleted after 120 days of inactivity. After that, your phone number is no longer recognized as a Signal user.
How long until an unused Signal account is deleted?
Signal deletes accounts after 120 days of inactivity. Opening Signal regularly on your primary phone keeps it active.
Sources
Related guide How to delete yourself and your information from the internet 
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