Account deletion rules on the App Store and Google Play

If people can create an account in your app, both stores require that they can also delete it. The two rules look alike and differ in one detail that trips up a lot of developers: Google also wants a deletion path that works from the web.

Apple: guideline 5.1.1(v)

The App Store Review Guidelines say: "If your app supports account creation, you must also offer account deletion within the app." Apple has enforced it since June 30, 2022.

Apple's guidance adds several specifics:

• Inside the app. People must be able to start the deletion from the app itself, usually from account settings.
• The whole account. Offering to deactivate or disable the account is not enough. The account record and the personal data tied to it have to go.
• No detours. Apps should not require a phone call, an email or a support chat to delete an account. Highly regulated industries, such as banking, are the exception.
• A website is allowed for the last step. If deletion finishes on your site, the app must link straight to the page where it happens.
• Slow is allowed, silent is not. A manual process is acceptable if you tell people how long it takes and confirm when it is done.
• Sign in with Apple. Apps that use it should revoke the user's tokens through the Sign in with Apple REST API when the account is deleted.

Google Play: in the app and on the web

Google's User Data policy asks for a clear deletion option "both from within your app and externally through a designated web resource". The web part exists for people who already uninstalled the app and want their data gone.

What the web resource needs:

• It must work without the app. People must be able to request deletion without reinstalling it or being sent back to it.
• It must name the app or developer as they appear on the Play listing.
• The format is flexible. A page with instructions, a form or an email address all qualify, as long as the path is clear.
• The URL goes in the Data safety form, in the data deletion section of Play Console.

What has to be deleted: the user data associated with the account, including what you declared in Data safety. You should also ask your service providers to delete it. You may keep data you need for security, fraud prevention or legal obligations, as long as you disclose that, for example in your privacy policy.

Google set the deadline at December 7, 2023, with extensions to May 31, 2024. Since then, apps without a deletion path can be removed.

Side by side

	Apple	Google Play
Deletion inside the app	Required	Required
Deletion from the web	Allowed as the final step	Required, as a separate link
Deactivation is enough	No	No ("merely freezing the account is not sufficient")
Data you may keep	Disclose it	Security, fraud and legal needs, disclosed
Where the link goes	In the app	In the app and in the Data safety form

A deletion page that passes review

A good public deletion page answers four questions in plain language:

1. How to delete the account, step by step, from the app and from the web.
2. What gets deleted, and what you keep and for how long.
3. How long it takes, and how the person will know it is done.
4. Who to contact if something goes wrong.

Keep the page on a stable URL. Store listings keep pointing at it for as long as the app is live, and a deletion link that returns 404 is a policy problem that can surface months after launch. Our account deletion URL guide has a checklist for the page itself.

How Lanpage helps

Lanpage publishes an account deletion page for your app, in your words, next to your Privacy Policy, Terms and support page. You get a URL for Play Console and for the link inside your app, and you can edit the page any time without a deploy. The policy and the deletion page live together, so updating what you retain is one edit in one place.

Lanpage is not a law firm, and deleting the data is still your app's job. What we take care of is the public page reviewers and users open. Create the deletion page for your app for free.