Delete your GuptChat account or data
How to delete your GuptChat account, or only some of your data; what is deleted, what is kept and for how long. Three ways to delete the account: in the app, on this page with your password, or, when you no longer have the app or the password, with your 12-word backup phrase.
Before you delete
- Deletion is permanent. Your chats, the groups you are in, the channels you own and your profile cannot be brought back.
- Your Gupt ID is never given to anyone else and cannot be reused by you either.
- Messages you already sent stay in the other people's chats, encrypted on their phones, until they are deleted there. Delete them for everyone first if you want them gone.
1. Delete your account
In the app
- Open GuptChat.
- Go to Settings → Account → Delete my account.
- Enter your password and confirm. The account is deleted at once.
On this page, with your password (no app needed)
You can also let the account delete itself: Settings → Privacy → Delete my account if away for. An account that is not opened for the chosen time is deleted automatically.
What is deleted with the account
- Your name, about text and profile photo
- Your password, and the sign-in on every phone
- Your phones' list, push notification tokens and encryption public keys, and key messages still waiting for your phones
- Your statuses
- Your chat settings and block list
- The channels you own
- Open requests for a VIP number
- Your membership of every group (the group sees "deleted their account")
2. Without the app or your password: ask with your backup phrase
Phone lost, app removed, password forgotten? The 12-word backup phrase from Settings → Account → Backup phrase proves the account is yours, the same way it does for a password reset. Because this request is made without the app, it is reviewed by the GuptChat team before the account goes, usually within 48 hours. Until then you can take it back at any time by signing in to the app with your Gupt ID and password: a sign-in cancels the request.
The words are sent once over the encrypted connection to gupt.chat, checked against the backup key saved for your account and not stored. Type them only here, on gupt.chat, never in a message or an email.
Your Gupt ID and backup phrase
The code on your phone
A 6-digit code was sent to the phones signed in to this account, as a GuptChat notification. It works for 10 minutes. Enter it here.
Your request
Keep this link to check the request later; it is the only way back to it:
Approval usually takes up to 48 hours. If you still have the app on any phone, signing in to it cancels the request. Nothing is deleted until the team approves.
3. Delete some of your data, and keep your account
| What | How (in the app) | Removed from the server |
|---|---|---|
| A message you sent | Long-press the message → Delete → Delete for everyone | Yes, text, photo or file, and poll |
| A whole chat | Open the chat menu → Delete chat → also for the other person. In a group, the owner can delete the group for everyone. | Yes, all its messages |
| Messages over time | Chat menu → Disappearing messages, choose a timer | Yes, when the timer runs out |
| A status | Status → your status → Delete | Yes (statuses also expire after 24 hours) |
| Profile photo | Settings → Profile → remove the photo | Yes |
| Your copy of a chat | Chat menu → Clear chat | No: only your copy is cleared, the other people keep theirs |
Messages and files are also deleted from your phone when you delete them in the app. Copies on other people's phones are theirs; "Delete for everyone" and "Delete chat for both" ask their apps to remove them too.
4. What is kept, and for how long
- Messages you already sent stay in the other people's chats, encrypted, after you delete your account. They are removed when their disappearing timer runs out, when the chat is deleted for everyone, or when they fall out of the last 500 messages the server keeps for each chat. To remove them first, delete them for everyone before deleting your account.
- Your Gupt ID is kept, marked as deleted, with the time of deletion, so that it is never given to anyone else.
- Photos and files that nothing points to any more are removed by an automatic cleanup within 2 days; the photo or video of a status within 9 days.
- A deletion request made on this page is kept for 90 days after it is done or closed (its reference, Gupt ID, time and the address it came from), so the team can answer questions about it. A request that never got its code is dropped after an hour.
- The server's previous save of its database is replaced by the next save, normally within minutes.
- Reports and bug reports you sent are kept for review, and server logs keep technical events and IP addresses for troubleshooting and abuse prevention.
More details: Privacy policy.