If your app lets people create an account, Google Play still treats account deletion as a User Data policy requirement in 2026 — not a store-listing nicety. Play Console Help is explicit: you must give users a way to request deletion of the app account and the data tied to it, and you must do it in two places. First, a readily discoverable in-app path. Second, an external web resource where they can request the same thing without reinstalling the app. You then enter that URL in the Data deletion questions on the Data safety form (App content). Freezing, disabling, or temporarily deactivating an account is not deletion.

What you are solving today: Play’s User Data account-deletion rule plus the Data deletion questions on the Data safety form. If the app can create an account, build both paths, put the working web link in Play Console, and make sure a freeze/disable flow is not what you declared as “delete.”

Who this applies to (and who it does not)

Understanding Google Play’s app account deletion requirements defines an app account as a unique user identity you provide so the person can use your product across applications and/or devices — typically a username, email, and password, plus some way to authenticate (password, phone OTP, 2FA, biometrics, SSO, and similar).

The same Help article says your app “allows users to create an account from within the app” if a user can finish creating the account inside the app or if the app sends them to an account-creation flow outside the app. Optional login does not get you out: if account creation exists in any part of the experience, you still owe deletion even when some features work without an account.

Two narrow exemptions are documented there: permanently private apps and enterprise device management apps. Accounts that are created and operated offline are not app accounts and are out of scope. Non-mobile surfaces (web, Android TV, Wear OS, and similar) do not have to offer an in-app start button — they still need a readily discoverable web deletion option, and you still enter that URL in Play Console.

The two required paths (freezing is not one of them)

The User Data policy’s Account Deletion Requirement, as restated in Play Console Help, is a pair — not a choice:

  1. In-app: a readily discoverable option to start deleting the app account and associated data. Help says the path should be intuitive and prominent — for example inside account settings or a similar section. A full end-to-end in-app deletion is allowed. If that is not feasible yet, Help also allows an in-app link that opens your web deletion resource.
  2. On the web: a resource where users can request deletion of the app account and associated data. You enter that link in the designated URL field in Play Console. This is required even if the in-app flow is complete: some people have already uninstalled the app or cannot open it, and Play does not want them sent back to re-download the app just to file the request.

When you honor the request, you must delete the user data associated with that app account. The User Data policy states that temporary deactivation, disabling, or “freezing” does not qualify as account deletion. The same policy’s key considerations repeat it in one line: account freezing is not a valid substitute. If you must keep some data for legitimate reasons — Help names security, fraud prevention, or regulatory compliance — tell users about that retention (for example in the privacy policy). Do not hide extra steps or invent a maze; Help tells you not to create hidden patterns or undue rigor, and not to ship a broken or outdated deletion URL.

What the web page must actually do

Play Console Help lists concrete tests for the web link. It must:

If the user has to do something else first (Help’s example is canceling a subscription), spell those steps out and keep a support flow available. If you reuse an existing privacy or data-retention page, Help says the data-deletion section must be highlighted and reasonably prominent — for example with an anchor link.

All user data you marked as collected in Data safety is in scope. Help’s examples include personal and sensitive user data, payment information, authentication data, contacts, location, SMS and call-related data, health and Health Connect data, other-apps inventory, microphone, camera, and similar. If a service provider processes that data for you, delete it on your servers and ask the provider to do the same. Complete requests in a reasonably quick period, and check the laws that apply to your users — Help notes that some countries set their own deletion and retention rules.

Step 1 — Confirm you actually create accounts

Before you open Play Console, decide whether the policy applies. Walk the real product, not the marketing site:

  1. Can a new user create an identity inside the app (email/password, phone OTP, SSO, or similar)?
  2. Does any screen send them to a website or another app to finish signup? Help counts that as in-app account creation.
  3. Is signup optional for some features but still present somewhere? You still need both deletion paths.
  4. Is this a permanently private app, an enterprise device-management app, or an offline-only identity? Those are the documented outs — do not invent others.

If you do not create app accounts, you still complete the Data deletion questions (every developer must), but you do not invent an in-app delete button you cannot honor. Answer the form for the product you actually ship.

Step 2 — Build the in-app path (or the in-app link to the web resource)

Play does not prescribe a single UI widget. It does require the path to be discoverable and intuitive. A practical reading of the Help text:

  1. Put the control where account holders already look — Help’s example is account settings (or a similar section), not a buried submenu.
  2. Make the action request account deletion and associated data deletion, not “deactivate,” “disable,” or “freeze.” Those words fail the policy test.
  3. If a full in-app wipe is not ready, ship an in-app link that opens the same web deletion resource you will paste into Play Console.
  4. If extra steps are required (subscription cancel, identity check), describe them in the flow and keep support reachable — the same rule Help writes for the web page.
  5. On Wear OS, Android TV, or a web-only companion, you may skip the in-app start control; you still owe the web resource and the Console URL.

Step 3 — Publish the web resource, then copy its URL

Stand up the page (or the highlighted section of your privacy policy) so it meets the four tests above. Confirm it loads, names the app the way the Play listing does, and lets someone who already uninstalled the APK still request deletion. Copy the exact URL you will paste into Play Console. Do not point the field at a homepage and hope reviewers find a footer link — Help wants the deletion pathway prominent on that page.

Step 4 — Answer Data safety / Data deletion on App content

Play Console Help says every developer must complete the Data deletion questions in the Data safety form on the App content page. If your app is in scope, you must disclose that you provide account deletion and provide the web link in that form. Some of those answers appear on the store listing (the data deletion badge and the Data deletion area).

The documented Data safety walk-through in Provide information for Google Play’s Data safety section is:

  1. Open Play Console and go to the App content page.
  2. Under Data safety, select Start.
  3. Read the Overview, then select Next.
  4. In Data collection and security, say whether the app collects or shares any required user data types. If yes, answer whether all collected user data is encrypted in transit, and whether you provide a way for users to request that their data is deleted.
  5. Complete the Data deletion questions for account deletion: disclose the in-app path if the app creates accounts, and paste the web deletion URL into the designated field. Issues on those questions can block new submissions and updates until you fix them.
  6. In Data types, select every type you collect or share, then Next.
  7. In Data usage and handling, answer the per-type questions (collected/shared, ephemeral, required/optional, purposes).
  8. Open Store listing preview and confirm the Data deletion area and badge match what you actually offer. Then Submit (or save as draft). You can export answers to CSV, edit offline, and import them again from the same App content → Data safety screen.

You need a live privacy policy to finish the Data safety form. The User Data policy also requires that policy to include your data retention and deletion practices, and to name the developer or the app as they appear on the listing. Help is blunt about accuracy: you alone are responsible for complete, accurate Data safety declarations. Google’s review is not designed to re-audit every answer on your behalf; a mismatch between the form and the app can still trigger enforcement.

Step 5 — What users see, and what you lose if this is wrong

Once the form is approved, Play Console Help says users can see a refreshed data deletion badge in the Data safety section and follow your links in the Data deletion area on the store listing. The previous badge is gone; the new one requires an approved Data safety form that includes the Data deletion questions.

If those questions are incomplete or have unaddressed issues, Help says you cannot publish a new app or an update. After the original compliance window (Help’s last published enforcement date is May 31, 2024), non-compliant apps “may face additional enforcement actions… such as the removal of your app from Google Play.” That is still the published outcome in 2026 — there is no official “we stopped checking deletion” note in the articles below.

A 10-minute checklist

  1. Decide whether the app creates an account in-app or by sending the user to an outside signup flow.
  2. Put a prominent in-app delete path in account settings (or an in-app link to the web resource).
  3. Publish a working web page that names the app as on Play and lets an uninstalled user request deletion.
  4. Delete associated account data on request; do not substitute freeze/disable. Disclose any lawful retention in the privacy policy.
  5. Ask service providers to delete the same data you delete on your servers.
  6. Open App content → Data safety, finish the Data deletion questions, and paste the URL in the designated field.
  7. Preview the store listing, submit the form, and fix any Data deletion issues before the next release.

The one-line version

If the app can create an account, Play requires both an in-app deletion path and a working web link in the Data safety / Data deletion questions on App content — and freezing or disabling the account does not count as deletion.

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