Seeing the perfect portrayal of life can be a bit challenging at times, especially when things in your own life aren’t going according to plan. Productivity can also be severely affected when you’re spending your days checking constant notifications. Whatever the reason may be, deleting your Instagram account isn’t as “weird” as you might think.

Today, we’ll try to shed a light on the questions regarding the complete deletion of your Instagram account and help you assess the finality of your decision.

How to get off Instagram?

There are three ways you could curb your Instagram intake. All three are effective in their own way and can help you take a break off the social media site.

  • Log out: The easiest and the most obvious cure to your Insta addiction: log out and come back only when you feel ready to jump right back into the popularity contest. By logging out, you can put an end to endless Instagram notifications and get some work done.
  • Deactivate: If logging out doesn’t serve your purpose, you could opt to disable your Instagram account, temporarily. Not only would you not get notifications, but your Instagram account would also disappear off the face of the earth. The process, however, is reversible.
  • Delete: Deleting your Instagram account is the final nail in the coffin, as they say. This process — which we will discuss in length — is irreversible and is only for people with strong resolve.

What is the difference between deactivation and deletion?

As discussed in the previous section, deactivation and deletion pretty much work the same way, with the only difference being the finality of the processes.

If you deactivate/temporarily disable your account, your profile, photos, comments, likes, and account activity will be hidden until you reactivate it. You can reactivate your account by logging in with your Instagram credentials.

If you choose to delete, however, all your photos, videos, likes, and followers would be permanently deleted. Once you confirm the action, there’s no coming back from it.

Can you recover your deleted Instagram account?

As mentioned earlier, deleting your account is the final “nail.” As per the company policy, you won’t get back your photos, videos, or followers once you permanently delete your account. Additionally, neither can you use your old username to create a new account nor can it be linked to any other account.

Will your friends be able to find you?

After your account is deleted — same goes for deactivation — no one can view your profile, tag you in posts, or send you messages. As all your photos are deleted, any photo that you had tagged your friends in, would get deleted as well. Instagram shows tagged photos under a separate tab, meaning your friends would know when you delete your account.

How to permanently delete your Instagram account?

Now that you know all about deleting your Instagram account, let’s take a look at how to complete the process. If you were hoping to get it over with through the Instagram app itself, we regret to inform you that it won’t be possible.

Instagram requires you to log in to your account through a web browser — either on mobile or PC. Logged in? Follow the steps below to permanently delete your Instagram account:

Step 1: Go to the ‘Delete Your Account page‘. You’ll be asked to log in if you hadn’t earlier.

Step 2: You’ll receive a six-digit code on your mobile number. Enter it to proceed.

Step 3: Select a reason for this drastic step by clicking on the dropdown menu.

Step 4: After selecting the reason, re-enter your password and hit the red ‘Permanently delete my account’ button.

That’s it! your Instagram account will be deleted permanently. To start using Instagram again, you’ll have to find a new username or use the one Insta assigns.

Instagram was fun!

Click, stylize, and share — Instagram, for all intents and purposes, has revolutionized the world of photo sharing. Pre-Insta, most users needed to have supreme self-confidence to go online and share their moments with the world.

Things were even more complicated for private, intimate moments. Instagram, which is now a part of the Facebook ecosystem, has changed the game for the better, normalizing the process of everyday photo sharing.

From professional photographers to social influencers and everyone in between — Instagram has over a billion active monthly users and the number is expected to grow over the months and possibly years.

Instagram’s visual, aesthetic presentation may very well be the future of advertising or even social media, but that doesn’t make it immune to the regular pitfalls of the system.


If you have any other queries, feel free to drop them in the comments section below.