When it comes to social media services, Snap Inc-owned Snapchat sits proudly in the front row. It may not be as popular as Facebook or Twitter, but its unique, snazzy outlook is cherished by many across the globe. Snapchat’s peppy and “colorful” attire is indeed an attention-grabber, but it also can be pretty annoying if you grow out of the “hip” Snapchatter phase.
Whether it’s the worn-out flashy look or the incessant Snaps, the proposition of uninstalling Snapchat is rather real. Unfortunately, every thought of a uninstall also carries the lingering Fear Of Missing Out on something great in the world of Snaps. If you are amid in such a dilemma, allow this piece to guide you. Read on to learn what happens when you uninstall the Snapchat app.
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Difference between uninstalling the app and deleting your Snapchat account
Before we start discussing what you might or might not miss after deleting your account, let’s check out how it differs from deleting your Snapchat account altogether.
When you hit the uninstall button on your mobile, the space that Snapchat was occupying on your mobile’s internal storage gets freed up. And that’s pretty much it. Since your account data isn’t stored locally — but on a far away Snapchat server — uninstalling the app won’t harm your account data.
Deleting your Snapchat account, on the other hand, is a lot more serious than a simple uninstall. When you delete your Snapchat account — and don’t go back in 30 days — all data related to your account gets wiped for good. Your friends won’t be able to find you on Snapchat and all the memories you may have saved over the years would be kicked off the server.
Deleting your Snapchat account is an irreversible process while deleting the Snapchat app isn’t.
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What happens when you uninstall Snapchat?
Now that you know the subtle yet important differences between uninstallation and deactivation, let’s check out what really happens when you decide to bid Snapchat adieu.
Will your friends be removed when you delete the app?
As discussed in the previous section, deleting Snapchat is a reversible process. So, whenever you decide to reinstall the app and log in to your original account, all information — including friends — would rush back in. Rest assured that your friend list would remain intact if you ever decide to make a grand comeback.
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What happens to your Snapstreaks when you delete the app?
Snapchat, technically, falls in the same category as the leader of the segment, Facebook. However, there are quite a few aspects that make the Snap machine stand out; Snapstreaks being one of them. In simple terms, Snapstreaks are the standard metric of communication between you and your friends. After you exchange Snaps with a friend for three consecutive days, the Snapstreak metric comes alive. To keep it going, you must exchange at least one Snap — send and receive — within a 24-hour window, with the friend you’re maintaining your Streak with.
When you uninstall the app, you lose the ability to send Snaps to your friends. Your friends can still send you Snaps, of course, but the Streak would go for a toss as it is a two-way street. If you care about your Snapstreaks, uninstalling the app won’t do you any good.
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What happens to Snapchat Memories when you delete Snapchat?
Avid Snapchatters tend to save their favorite Snaps and Stories for multiple viewings, sharing, and safekeeping. They do so with the help of a Snapchat feature called Memories. If you happen to be one of the many Snapchatters to use this feature, it’s natural to be concerned about its whereabouts after you hit the ‘Uninstall’ button. Fortunately, Snapchat takes special care of the Memories you store and makes sure they are available when you log back into your Snapchat account. Since local data is completely wiped, it might take a little while for you to get up and running again.
Can your friends see your location after you delete the app?
If you choose to share your location on Snap Map with friends during the initial setup, your friends are allowed to view your location in real time whenever you use the app. If you uninstall Snapchat, the application would lose the privilege of accessing the GPS — and the current location — of your mobile phone, which means that your friends would not get to see your current whereabouts on Snapchat’s Snap Map.
Related: How To Change Snapchat Location
Can someone look you up on Snapchat after you delete the app?
In the first subsection of the article, we talked about the differences between uninstalling Snapchat from your phone and deleting your account altogether. When uninstalling, you’re not deactivating your Snapchat account, just taking a little break from the incessant notifications and pressure of keeping Snapstreaks alive. So, to all the Snapchatters around the world, you’re still pretty much alive on the platform, but not actively contributing. They can look you up as usual and even send you Snaps if they feel like it.
Does Snapchat keep your data when you delete it?
When you delete the Snapchat app from your phone, your account data will only be deleted from the device you uninstalled on. This doesn’t affect all the other data that Snapchat stores on its servers and they’ll continue to remain available as long as your account is deleted. If your account is still active (in case, you only deleted the app), Snapchat will store your account settings, friends, Snaps, Chats, Stories, device data, and location data in its user base and you’ll be able to access them again as soon as you re-install the app on phone again.
When you opt to delete your Snapchat account instead, the service will store your account data including your account settings, friends, Snaps, Chats, Stories, device data, and location data for up to 30 days. After the 30-day mark, all of this information will be removed from Snapchat’s servers and it won’t be retrievable to you.
Snapchat claims that it may keep some of your personal information and purchase history for legal, security, and business reasons. This data will stay on Snapchat’s servers but will only be accessible to the service, not to you personally.
Can you access Snapchat after you delete it?
If you only delete the Snapchat app from your phone, you can regain access to your account anytime once you re-install the app on Android or iOS. Your account data and chat history stay intact on Snapchat’s servers even after you delete the app.
In case it’s the Snapchat account that you deleted, the ability to regain access to it depends on how long it’s been since you deleted your account. If you deleted your Snapchat account sometime within the last month (30 days), you can log back into your account and re-activate your deleted account to access all of your data. This way, you will be able to regain your account settings, friends, Snaps, Chats, Story, device data, and location data
If it has been well over 30 days since you deleted your Snapchat account, there’s now no way to get back into your old Snapchat account as it has now been permanently deleted. If you use your previous username or email address to log into Snapchat, your attempt will be considered invalid. At this point, you can only access Snapchat by creating an account from scratch and adding your friends again.
Can I save my Snapchat data before deleting it?
Since deleting your Snapchat account is an irreversible process, the service gives you a way to keep parts of your account data for when you choose to delete it. You can download your account data from Snapchat servers while your account is currently active and save the following information onto your storage:
- Login History and Account information
- User & Public Profiles
- Snap History
- Saved Chat History
- Memories
- Purchase & Shop History
- Snapchat Support History
- Friends
- Location
- Search History
- Bitmoji
To download the aforementioned data from Snapchat, you will need to open the Snapchat app on your phone.
Inside Snapchat, tap on your profile picture at the top left corner.
When your profile screen loads up, tap on the cogwheel icon at the top right corner to access Snapchat settings.
On the Settings screen, scroll down to the bottom and tap on My Data under “Account Actions”.
You’ll be prompted to enter your Snapchat username and password and when you do that, tap on Next.
When you arrive at the My Data page, you’ll see a list of data that you can download from Snapchat.
Scroll down to the bottom of this page and enter your email address inside the Confirm email address text box.
To make sure your data includes your Snapchat memories, turn on the Do you want to include your memories as a downloadable file? toggle.
By default, Snapchat will export your entire Snapchat data and history from the time you first set up your account on the platform. If you only wish to download data from a certain period, turn on the Filter your export by data range toggle.
When you do that, you’ll see a calendar view that lets you select a period like yesterday, the last 7 days, 30 days, 3 months, 6 months, or Last year. You can also opt to customize this period by tapping on Custom and choosing the period using the calendar on the right.
When you’re ready to create an export, tap on Submit Request at the bottom.
Your request will now be confirmed on the next page.
Shortly after you submit your request, you’ll receive an email with a link to your Snapchat data. To download this data, tap on the click here link from your email.
You can then log in to your Snapchat account and save the export as a ZIP file on your phone. You can then view the downloaded data by extracting the ZIP file on your device.
How to get Snapchat back
If you want to return to your glory days and start using Snapchat as you used to, you must download the app from Google Play or App Store and log in with your old username and password.
The moment you do, you’ll be taken back to your account right away. Your friends — given that they are still active — memories, Snaps, and everything else would once again be at your fingertips.
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