What Happens If You Delete Instagram App

If I Delete Instagram Off My Phone Will It Delete My Account?

Building an Instagram profile comes naturally to some, while others need to put in the effort. You research ways to make your pictures look 'likeable', search followers who will follow you back and investigate new filters for Instagram stories. However, this time building Instagram profile mounts up. You start neglecting other aspects of life and decide you need to take a break so you can be productive in other ways. This may lead you to want to delete the Instagram app off your phone to lessen the temptation to hover over the feed. However, this doesn't mean you want all of your photo and video content to disappear forever. You may ask yourself if I delete Instagram off my phone will it delete my account? The short answer is no, but it depends on how you delete it. Let oneHOWTO show you what we mean.

Background on Instagram content

Instagram is a very popular image and video sharing service owned and operated by Facebook. Launched in 2010 exclusively for iOS, it has now become available for Android devices as well. With this app, you can upload your images and videos, edit them using various filters and organize with location and tags. When you share your images or videos with your followers or with public, they can like them or comment on them. As of September 2017, there are 800 million users who use Instagram, with more than 40 billion photos uploaded till date.

You may be wondering who owns the content you post to Instagram? Technically, it is you who owns the copyright of your images. However, others can repost this content under fair use law^[1]. This means if it is used for one of the following:

Research or study
Criticism of review
Parody or satire
Reporting news
Professional legal advice

Really, it would be difficult to use an image which doesn't fall into one of these categories in some way. This is why it is fairly easy to repost an image, although it is always recommended you cite the source. This is especially so if it is an artists work as opposed to a meme or something similar.

Does your account get deleted when you delete the Instagram app?

The simple answer is no. It is much like your bank's app on your smartphone. You may use the app to check your balance and even make transactions. But deleting the app from your phone does not affect your bank account. Similarly, you have a username and password to your Instagram account and you can access it from any place where you have internet connection. Even if you uninstall the app from your device, you can login to your Instagram account from another device. All your contacts and media will show up the same way they did earlier. They will remain safe unless you deactivate your account before deleting the app from your device.

Fortunately, there is a fail-safe when using the app on your device. This is because you cannot deactivate your account through the app. Instead, you must go into the browser (either on mobile or desktop). This means even if you want to delete your account while uninstalling the Instagram app, you couldn't.

How to Delete an Instagram Account Permanently

Before you delete your Instagram account permanently, know that once you do it, you won't be able to sign up again using the same username or add it to another account. Most importantly, an Instagram account once deleted cannot be recovered or reactivated. So, once you are sure how to delete an Instagram account permanently, follow these steps:

Remember, you cannot delete your Instagram account from within the app on your device. You will have to
open your Instagram account using your computer or mobile browser.

Once you open Instagram from the desktop or browser, login to it using your username and password. You also have the options to login via Facebook or using your phone number. Always enter your username and password from scratch if you are using a public computer.

Once you login to your Instagram account, click on your username right besides your profile photo.

Click on the 'Edit Profile' button on the top of the page.

In the bottom of the page, you will see a link which says 'Temporarily disable my account'. Click on this link.

You will be directed to a page that allows you to temporarily disable your account. If you are sure you want to permanently delete your account, you will have to go to your URL and replace the word 'temporary' with 'permanent'.

You will be automatically directed to a page which allows you to permanently delete your Instagram account.

Click on the drop down menu and select a reason for which you are deleting your account.

Once you select your reason, you will have to re-enter your password in order to confirm authenticity.

Finally, click the red 'Permanently delete my account' button at the bottom of the page.

Once you delete your account permanently, all your profile data, followers, shared media, likes and comments will be removed forever. You won't be able to use this username again, either for this account or for another account.

If I Delete Instagram Off My Phone Will It Delete My Account? - How to Delete an Instagram Account Permanently

How to delete your Instagram account without losing your photos

Typically, when you delete your Instagram account, all your friendships, photos, likes, comments and everything you have done on the social network is automatically deleted forever. If you want to save your photos, you have to make up your mind before deleting the account. There is an option to save your Instagram photos using 'Instaport'. It is an online app with which you can download your photos or move them to any other social network. All you need to do is to login to your Instagram account, give access to Instaport so that it can reach your files and then begin the download. Now that you have saved your photos on your hard drive safely, you are free to delete your account forever.

Since uploading photos to Instagram can only be done through your device (unless you have an emulator you can use on desktop), your content should already be stored on your phone, backed up on a device or backed up to the cloud. However, you won't have the filters and other metadata attached to the photo, image or video. If you want a way to store and secure edited files, you can edit all of your content on another app such as Flipagram before posting to Instagram.

You won't lose your content if you delete the Instagram app from your phone. However, if you permanently deactivate your account, you will. Unlike Twitter, you don't get a 30 day cooling off period before the account is deleted permanently. This is why it is important to back up all of your content when posting to Instagram.

Instagram Stories videos will not be saved either. However, this happens even if you don't delete your account. This is because these stories are designed after the Snapchat model, which means they will be gone after a 24 hour period.

Conclusion

To summarize, your Instagram account will not be deleted if you remove Instagram app from your Android or iOS phone. You can still login to your Instagram account using your username and password on another deice. However, it is an entirely different procedure when you delete your account, as you will lose all your friends, followers and media after that.

This is why Instagram provides an easier and more feasible option. It allows you to disable your account temporarily, so that your account is kept hidden for the time being and it can be reactivated when you wish to do so. So, don't worry, if you deleted Instagram from your phone or if your phone got lost or stolen. Your data will be kept safe with your username and password. You can easily access your data from another device by downloading the app or by logging into your account through the Instagram website.

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