Data Retention
How long every kind of record lives, and what deletion really does.
How long each kind of data lives, and what deletion actually does. Where a period is "until you delete it", that is a real answer: we do not expire your conversations behind your back.
| Data | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Account record (username, email, password hash) | Until you delete the account |
| Recovery email | Until you remove it, or delete the account |
| One-time email codes | 10 minutes, or until used; never stored in a readable form |
| Messages and media | Until deleted by you, or the account is deleted |
| Messages in a chat with disappearing messages on | 24 hours, 7 days or 90 days from when each was sent, as chosen in that chat; then deleted from our servers with any photo or video they carried, normally within a few minutes. A message that has been reported is kept until the report is dealt with, and never shown again. |
| View-once photos and videos | Deleted once everyone they were sent to has opened them, or after 14 days if not; the same exception for a reported one. |
| Recordings of lives | 2 days, then deleted. A live stopped by our staff or by a report: held 90 days, as the law requires, then deleted. |
| Cloud recordings of meetings | 2 days from the end of the recording, then deleted — the file and everyone's access to it. There is no way to extend it. |
| Songs added to the music library | Until the artist withdraws them or deletes the account, or we remove them |
| Lives: comments, hearts and who watched | 30 days after the live ends, then deleted. The video of a live is never stored. |
| System and call-signalling logs | 14 days, then purged |
| Device-reported media failures | 14 days, with the logs |
| Devices you're signed in on | About two months from the sign-in at most (a sign-in lasts 30 days), then deleted; or when you delete your account |
| Where a courier was when a local delivery ended | 30 days after the delivery ends, then deleted. Only the latest point is ever kept, never a route |
| Identifiers kept to keep banned accounts out (hashes of your email, phone numbers and this browser's install id) | Until you delete the account. If the account is banned: for the length of the ban, and never more than 730 days |
| Payment and settlement records | As long as tax and anti-money-laundering law requires (typically 7 years) |
| Seller identity records (INFORM Act) | While selling, and as the Act requires after |
| Support requests and appeals (what you wrote to us, our answers, our staff's notes on the case, any rating you gave, and the email address you gave if you wrote to us from the sign-in screen) | 2 years after the case is closed, then deleted; or when you delete your account |
| Our staff's messages to each other (which can mention a request or an account) | 1 year, then deleted |
| The record of what our staff did (which staff member acted, on which account or item, when, from which network address, and the reason they gave) | 2 years, including after an account it names is deleted: it is how staff are held to account for what they do to yours, and it cannot be edited |
| Content reports and moderation decisions | 730 days once resolved, for appeals and pattern-of-abuse checks |
| CSAM reports and preserved evidence | As required by law and by NCMEC; not deleted on request, and excluded from the automated purge |
| DMCA notices and counter-notices | 1095 days, to operate the repeat-infringer policy |
| Sanctions screening outcomes | Held on the account record, and removed with it |
| Backups | Rolling; deleted data ages out of backups within 38 days |
What deleting your account does
It removes your account record and your content, and anonymises the log lines that mention you rather than leaving your name scattered through them. It does not remove: messages you sent that other people still hold on their own devices; records we are legally required to keep, listed above; or an aggregate that no longer identifies you.
Deletion is immediate and self-service, in Settings → Your data & privacy. There is no waiting period and nobody to persuade.
Legal holds
If we are told to preserve specific records for an investigation or litigation, those records are held outside the schedule above until the hold lifts.
What has changed
27 October 2026 · version 9
- Support requests written from the sign-in screen keep the email address you gave, for the same 2 years after the case closes.
9 October 2026 · version 8
- Local delivery: the last point of a courier's location is kept 30 days after the delivery ends, then deleted.
9 October 2026 · version 7
- Identifiers kept to keep banned accounts out (hashes of your email, phone and this browser's install id): deleted with your account; for a banned account, kept for the length of the ban and never more than two years.
8 October 2026 · version 6
- Disappearing messages: deleted 24 hours, 7 days or 90 days after they were sent, as chosen in each chat. View-once photos and videos: deleted once opened by everyone they were sent to, or after 14 days. Reported ones are kept until the report is dealt with.
24 September 2026 · version 5
- Recordings of lives: 2 days, like meetings; a live stopped by staff or a report: held 90 days, then deleted.
24 September 2026 · version 4
- Whinchat Artists songs: until the artist withdraws them or deletes the account, or we remove them.
24 September 2026 · version 3
- Lives: the comments, the hearts and who watched are kept 30 days after the live ends, then deleted. The video itself is never stored.
24 September 2026 · version 2
- Cloud recordings of meetings: 2 days, then deleted.
12 July 2026 · version 1
- First published.