I’m the type of guy who doesn’t like to create new accounts for things that I will barely use. In the few instances that I do, I tend to value being able to easily delete the account when I need to. Of course, if you sign up for an account in an app, it’s easiest to delete that same account from the app.
However, sometimes you end up deleting the app before you delete your account, and at that point, deleting your account becomes a lot more annoying. A new feature in the Google Play Store, the Account Deletion Available badge, has just gone live and it should make this a lot easier.
The Google Play Store Will Now Give You A Shortcut To Delete An App Account
Google made changes and added to some of its policies for the Play Store last year. One relevant addition was for any app that allows you to make an account from within it. The developers of the relevant applications would have to make it possible for accounts to be deleted not only from inside the app but also through a webpage. Any non-compliant apps wouldn’t be allowed to be listed on the Play Store.
Well, we’ve finally seen the reason for this. Now, eligible applications will have an “Account deletion available” badge listed under the Data Safety section on the app’s Play Store page. When you tap the “See details” button in the Data Safety window and scroll to the bottom of the new page that appears, you’ll see the option to “Delete app account”, with a link that will take you to the developer’s website. I used TikTok as an example below.
This is great because in an instance where you might have already installed an app before deleting your account, you won’t need to reinstall it to get that done. Instead, you’ll now just be able to visit the Play Store listing for the app and get redirected to the appropriate page on the app’s website where you can get your account deleted. This is great for those apps you know you’ll likely never use again.
You’ll Also Get The Option To Only Delete Certain Types Of Data Too
To have more control over the data that some of these apps have, you may also be able to “manage” your app data depending on whether the application supports it or not. This can be accessed through the same means as the Delete App Account feature and will be underneath it as Manage App Data.
The difference here is that when you choose to manage your app data, you’ll be allowed to delete specific types of data instead of the entire account. So, for instance, you might want to only delete media of yours that the app might have stored on its servers, or perhaps just transaction history. You’ll be able to do that through this section. There’s a link to take you to the appropriate part of the developer’s website.
Overall, this feature set is a great new addition by Google to give you more control over how your data is treated by app developers, whether you’re still actively using the application or not.
