How-To

How to Deactivate Your Threads Account

By Brian Burgess

Published July 18, 2023

While you can’t delete your Threads account without deleting Instagram, you can deactivate it instead using this guide.

You might want to delete your account if you use the new Threads microblogging service introduced by Meta—the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. However, when you sign up for Threads, the only way to delete your Threads account is to delete your Instagram profile too.

Luckily, you can deactivate your Threads account without worrying about Instagram. This allows you to back out of Threads until the company upgrades its account deletion process.

How to Deactivate a Threads Account

Threads was created by Meta, who owns Facebook and Instagram. It’s meant to be a microblogging Twitter competitor that allows you to post videos (up to five minutes long), links, photos, and posts up to 500 characters. It connects with Instagram and lets you share Threads posts to an Instagram Story.

Signing up for Threads is straightforward using your Instagram account and following the onscreen instructions. However, if you try Threads for a while and decide it’s not for you, it’s not possible to delete the account without deleting Instagram too.

So, in the meantime, you can temporarily deactivate your Threads account.

To deactivate a Threads account:

1. Launch the Threads app on your phone or tablet.
2. Click your Profile button in the lower right corner of the app.
3. Click the Menu button in the top right corner.
4. Tap the Account option from the menu.
5. Tap the Deactivate profile option on the following screen.
6. Select the Deactivate Threads profile button at the bottom of the verification screen.
7. Tap the Deactivate button to verify the process.

Once you use the steps above, your Threads account is no longer active. Your profile, followers, interactions, and followers are disabled and hidden from other service users.

It’s important to note, however, this temporarily disables your account until you reenable it again if you wish. But it doesn’t affect your Instagram account at all. In addition, while you can disable your Threads account any time you want, it only allows one weekly deactivation. So, if you want to deactivate it long-term, you’ll be fine.

Take Charge of Your Social Media Accounts

Until (or if) Meta updates the option to delete your Threads account without affecting Instagram, deactivating it is your best option unless you want to delete your Instagram account too.

There are other ways to take charge of your social media apps from Meta. For example, you might want to unlink Instagram and Facebook accounts if you don’t want to cross-post. For additional privacy, you can disable location data on Instagram.

If you inadvertently send a message to someone, you can unsend the message on Instagram. In addition to Threads, you can deactivate Facebook but keep Messenger. And if you want to deactivate Instagram, ensure you download a copy of your data first.