About the effective date for the January 2021 update
What happens on the effective date?
No one will have their accounts deleted or lose functionality of WhatsApp on May 15th, 2021 because of this update.
What happens after the effective date?
Considering the majority of users who have seen the update have accepted, we'll continue to display a notification in WhatsApp providing more information about the update and reminding those who haven’t had a chance to do so to review and accept. We currently have no plans for these reminders to become persistent and to limit the functionality of the app.
There will also be other opportunities for those who haven’t accepted the updates to do so directly in the app. For example, when someone reregisters for WhatsApp or if someone wants to use a feature that's related to this update for the first time.
You can export your chat history on Android or iPhone, and download a report of your account.
- You can export your chats and download a report of your account on your own. If you need help downloading a report of your account or deleting your account, you can contact us here.
WhatsApp won’t delete your account if you don’t accept the update.
- Keep in mind that separately, our existing policy related to inactive users will apply.
- If you’d like to delete your account on Android, iPhone, or KaiOS, we hope you reconsider. Deleting your account is something we can’t reverse as it erases your message history, removes you from all of your WhatsApp groups, and deletes your WhatsApp backups.