Delete your account

Last updated: October 24, 2026

1. In the app

1. Open your profile (your avatar at the top of the Lobby).
2. Tap Settings.
3. Tap Delete account.
4. Choose whether to remove your messages. "Remove my messages everywhere" is on by default. Turn it off to keep your messages under your retired @username.
5. Confirm with your password.

Your account is deleted right away and this can't be undone. Removing your messages and margin notes can take a few minutes.

2. Without the app

If you no longer have the app or can't sign in, email privacy@palavrapp.com from the email address on your account. Use the subject "Delete my Palavr account" and include your @username. Tell us if you want to keep your messages; otherwise we'll remove them, the same as the app's default. We'll check the request came from you, delete your account within 30 days, and email you when it's done.

Already deleted your account and kept your messages? Email the same address, from the email address your account used, with the subject "Remove my Palavr messages" and your old @username. You can do this for 1 year after deleting your account; after that we can no longer confirm it's you. We'll reply with a link to confirm, then remove them within 30 days.

Deleted your account before October 24, 2026? Email us the same way. We didn't keep a way to verify those accounts, so we'll make reasonable efforts to confirm it's you, then remove your messages.

3. What gets deleted

• Your sign-in account (email and password).
• Your profile, including any display name.
• Your private date of birth.
• Your block list.
• Your notification tokens, so no device gets your notifications.
• Your reactions, everywhere.
• Your "here now" presence.
• The Pals and Palavers you Watch, and the record of who Watches you. Watcher counts elsewhere drop accordingly.
• Unless you choose to keep them: your messages (each becomes "Message removed", with no text and no name) and your margin notes, in every Palaver, including ones you only Watched.
• Palavers that only you ever joined.

4. What stays

• Your @username is retired. It stays reserved so nobody can ever claim it and pass themselves off as you. We keep only the name.
• Only if you kept your messages: a scrambled (one-way, salted) copy of your email address, for 1 year. It's stored separately, never with your account ID or username, and we use it only to check that a later request to remove kept messages really comes from you. We can't use it to contact you, and it's deleted automatically after 1 year. If you removed your messages, we keep no copy of your email.
• "Message removed" placeholders. These hold no text and nothing that identifies you.
• Messages you chose to keep. They stay under your retired @username. See §2 to remove them later.
• Palavers you were the last Pal in. They close for everyone and are removed after 30 days.
• Private safety copies. Our moderators keep a private copy of removed or edited-away text for 30 days, or until a review ends if the content was reported or the account is banned or under review. Reported content is kept for 90 days after the report closes. For child sexual exploitation reports, it is kept for 1 year from the later of the report's closing or our report to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. It is kept longer only where the law requires. This applies to every account, including restricted or banned ones.
• Reports and moderation records, including reports you filed: 2 years after they close; records of actions we took: 2 years. Ban records: while the ban lasts, plus 1 year once it's lifted; permanent bans, permanently.
• Usage and crash data held by Google Firebase, under its retention settings.

Copies others saved, such as screenshots, are outside our control.

5. Removing messages without deleting your account

You can delete any message you sent, or leave a Palaver and remove your messages in it. If you left a Palaver and kept your messages, you can't edit them any more. While the Palaver is live, you can delete them one at a time from its Watcher view: tap ⋯ on the message, or press and hold it, then Delete message. If it isn't live any more, or you can't open it, email privacy@palavrapp.com from the address on your account, naming the Palaver, and we'll remove them. Limits may apply to prevent abuse.

6. If something goes wrong

If deletion doesn't finish (for example, the app says your profile is gone but you're still signed in), sign out and email privacy@palavrapp.com with your @username.

More on how we handle your data is in the Privacy Policy.

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