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What is self-destruction in Telegram and how to program it

 

What is self-destruction in Telegram and how to program it

Maybe at some point you have created a Telegram account but you do not want to use it after a while because it no longer serves you or because you have uninstalled the application and you do not want messages to continue to arrive. In that case, you can activate the self-destruction in Telegram that will allow your account to be automatically deleted after a while without you having to worry about it.


If you do not use Telegram regularly or if you are worried that you will stop using it in the future and messages continue to arrive, you can have it deleted. You do not have to delete it immediately, but you will program the self-destruction so that it is deleted after a while if you stop using the application permanently.


Keep in mind that if you program self-destruction in Telegram and it is completely deleted , you will lose everything: you will lose your contacts, all your messages and your account. If you want to have one again, you will have to re-register in the application with your phone number and with a nickname to start over. But you will have lost the contacts with whom you speak and of which you do not have the phone number.


What is self-destruction?

As we have explained in previous paragraphs, this Telegram function allows the account to be deleted after a while if you are not online at least once during that period. It is automatically deleted if you are not going to use it so you do not worry if you have used Telegram once but do not want to use it again. You may use it once for something but you don't need it anymore. Self-destruct will not remove the applicationfrom your smartphone but your account will be deleted and when you log in again, your data, your chats and your contacts will not be there. The application will still be there and you will have to uninstall it manually. It will also work if you uninstall the app and forget about the account: after a while they will stop being able to write to you because you will not appear as available with a user profile.


How to activate

You can activate and deactivate self-destruction whenever you want or change the corresponding period so it doesn't matter if you regret it. It is not something irreversible and we can deactivate it in just one second. You can schedule self-destruction in Telegram and deactivate it in two months if you have regretted it. Or in a month or in a week, as long as you want. You will not need to go to the settings to restart the self destruct or to cancel it. Although to restart or pause the period, it is enough to be online for a few seconds and the countdown will be canceled to delete your account.


To activate it, the steps are very simple:


  • Open your Telegram application on your mobile phone
  • Go to the three lines in the upper left corner
  • Choose the profile if you have two associated numbers
  • Tap on Settings
  • Access the Privacy and security section
  • Look for the option "Delete my account"
  • Touch to open the different options
  • A drop-down menu will appear "Account self-destruction"
  • One month
  • Three months
  • Six months
  • One year
  • Choose the period of time you want
  • The pop-up window will close automatically
  • It will have been configured

As you can see, there is no way to deactivate the self-destruction of Telegram and the most you can do is configure it so that it is not deleted until after a year. That is, we cannot not have self-destruction activated in Telegram. It is activated by default and you cannot remove it. You can only delete it using Telegram. If you don't use the account, it is deleted forever. If you want to "deactivate" this option, just enter the app and go online. Just do it for a few seconds every year to prevent your account from being deleted and your chats from being lost forever. As we have explained, the period will restart and you will have another twelve months to not enter if you do not want to. Also, you don't even need to have the application installed because you can do it from the web.

Enabled by default

You must bear in mind that Telegram has this function activated automatically even if you do not touch it or know that it exists until you read this. By default, it arrives configured in the application when you create an account and is marked as self-destruct in six months, although you can change it as many times as you want.

Delete active sessions

Closing sessions is not the same as closing your account. In the first case, we will close the possibility of accessing the chats from a device but always with the option to start a new session and recover our contacts or conversations. In the second case, closing the account means losing everything.

Active sessions can be closed if you want to improve your privacy and it will not affect your chats at all. This is useful if you have been able to leave something open on a public computer or on a computer that someone else will use, at work or at home.

  • Open Telegram on your mobile
  • Touch the three lines in the upper left corner
  • Open Settings in the options menu of the app
  • Look for the Active sessions section
  • You will see which is the current session open and which others are at that moment
  • Application used or web version
  • Phone / Computer
  • IP adress
  • Location
  • Date of connection
  • Tap on "Close all other sessions"
  • Login only where you want and where you are going to use it

Delete account forever

There is no way to automatically delete your account from the application except to bet on self-destruction. What you will have to do is configure it to self-destruct in a month and not touch the application again in that period of time. It is the fastest option from the settings and the only one possible but not the only one.

Telegram has a specific page to delete your account automatically and in the shortest possible time. You simply have to fill out a form with our associated phone number (don't forget that you have to enter the international code, which in Spain is +34) and you will receive a confirmation code. You can see this confirmation code in a chat within the application itself and you will have to enter it on the previous website to complete the process.


Once you have received the code and written on the web to delete your Telegram account, confirm in "Delete" and confirm the cancellation by writing your phone number and explaining why you are going to delete your account permanently. You can write or not the reasons, it is not mandatory to fill in this field. Confirm with "delete my account".

Unlike self-destruction, this will have no turning back and is irreversible. You cannot recover your account once it has been deleted, so if you are going to regret it, you better bet on the previous method and have some time to think about it.

I don't want to use Telegram but I don't want to lose my chats

If you want to stop using Telegram temporarily or that notifications do not reach you or you do not want to respond, just uninstall it. Uninstall the messaging application from your mobile or your computer and you will stop receiving or accessing conversations. When you reinstall it, if you regret it, everything will stay in place as long as it hasn't been too long and the self-destruct deadline has passed. You will be able to uninstall and install Telegram as many times as you want and you will not see any changes in your account.

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