How to delete your Instagram account

More than one billion people worldwide use Instagram each month, with 500 million people logging in daily.

But, as the London Evening Standard says, the social media platform can be a “minefield”.

“You must follow friends out of loyalty, but your feed is also chock-a-block with spammers and oversharers. And that’s before summer holiday season starts and the sun-soaked horizons make the feed feel intolerable,” says the newspaper.

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If you need a digital detox and want to get rid of your account, here’s what to do.

How do you delete your account?

The quickest way to quit is to log into your Instagram account on either your mobile or desktop browser and then visit the app’s Delete Your Account page.

Enter your username or email and password. Instagram will then ask “why are you deleting your account?”, with a list of answers from which to choose.

Before getting rid of your Instagram account, “it’s worth taking a few moments to download a copy of everything you’ve uploaded to the platform”, including photos, videos, comments and your profile information, says tech website Trusted Reviews.

To do so, visit this download request webpage, enter your password and hit the “Request Download” button.

Unfortunately, “it can take Instagram up to 48 hours to gather this data together and send it to you, so it requires some extra patience”, adds the tech website.

Then simply go back to the Delete Your Account page and confirm your decision.

Is there a less drastic option?

There is. If you’re simply looking to take a break from infinite scrolling, “it makes much more sense to just disable your account temporarily”, says Gadget Hacks. Temporarily disabling your account all but erases your “existence from the popular social media platform, only without permanently deleting your photos, videos, and profile information”, the website adds.

Unfortunately for users, you can’t disable your account from the official Instagram application on Android and iOS. Instead, the hidden setting for your account can be found on Instagram’s mobile site.

Using the mobile web browser of your choice, edit your account here and then scroll down and tap on “Temporarily disable my account” at the bottom.

Alternatively, if you’re logged onto a desktop, you can just visit this page to disable your account.