Legal
Delete your Murmur account.
How to delete your account in the Murmur app (developer: Murmur Labs LLC) on iPhone, Android, Windows or Mac, what to do if you no longer have your devices, and what happens to your data.
Contents10 sections
In short
#- You delete your account in the app. Go to Settings › Account › Delete Account, then type your password. It’s immediate (on a device added less than 72 hours ago, it happens when those hours end).
- Only you can delete your account, from the app, so nobody can have it deleted with your username or an email.
- Lost your devices? Sign in on a new one with your Recovery Key and your password, then delete. Forgot your password? On a device that’s still signed in, your Recovery Key lets you set a new one, then delete. If you can’t sign in at all, your account is deleted on its own after 12 months without use, or the period you chose.
- We erase your account, your sign-in record, your keys and devices, your notification tokens, your profile, your links and invites, and your encrypted text backup. Your scheduled messages are cancelled first, so none goes out. Messages still waiting for you expire within 30 days.
- People you talked to keep the messages they already have. Your username waits 90 days, unlinked from you, and our server backups roll over within 14 days.
Before you delete
#- It can’t be undone, not even by Murmur. Your history goes with your account, because we hold no copy we could read.
- Want to keep your chats? Export them first. On a computer, Export my data gives you all your chats and the data our servers hold about your account, in a form you can import again. Disappearing messages and view-once photos are never exported.
- Paying for a plan through the App Store or Google Play? Deleting your account doesn’t stop the payments. Cancel the plan in your store account.
- Own a group? You may want to pass ownership to another member first.
- Removing the app doesn’t delete your account. Your account stays until you delete it, or until it’s deleted after the time without use you chose.
Delete in the app
#The fastest way. It’s the same on iPhone, Android, Windows and Mac, wherever you got the app, whether the App Store, Google Play or murmur.free.
Open Murmur on one of your devices.
Go to Settings › Account › Delete Account.
Read what happens. Your username is released, your devices are signed out and erased, the people you talked to keep the messages they already have, and it can’t be undone.
Enter your password and tap Delete Account.
That’s it. Your account is deleted right away. Your devices are signed out, and Murmur’s data on them is erased, including Vault and the messages you saved for later.
On a device in its first 72 hours, the deletion is scheduled, and it happens when those 72 hours end. That way, if someone added a device to your account without you, they can’t delete your account in a hurry, and you have time to notice and remove that device.
We don’t send a confirmation afterwards, because we have no email or phone number to send it to.
If you lost a device or your password
#Find your case below.
You still have a signed-in device
#- Delete from that device, phone or computer, in Settings › Account › Delete Account.
- Forgot your password? On that device, your Recovery Key lets you set a new password right away. Then delete from Settings › Account › Delete Account.
- Neither your password nor your Recovery Key? Remove Murmur from every device. Your account is then deleted on its own after the time without use, which is 12 months unless you chose another period.
You have no device left
#- With your Recovery Key and your password, install Murmur on any phone or computer and sign in, and you’re back right away. Then delete from Settings › Account › Delete Account.
- With your Recovery Key alone, sign in with it on any phone or computer and set a new password, and you’re back. Delete from Settings › Account › Delete Account. On a new device, the deletion happens once its first 72 hours are over.
- With your password alone, sign in with it on any phone or computer and ask for a fresh start. After 7 days you’re back under the same username, with an empty account, and you can delete it from Settings › Account › Delete Account.
- With neither, nobody can get into the account, including us, and we can’t check that it’s yours. It’s deleted on its own after the time without use set on the account, which is 12 months unless you chose another period. Then everything listed under What we delete is erased, exactly as if you had deleted it yourself.
Nobody can delete it for you
#We never delete an account because of an email or a username. We have nothing to check them against, and anyone could write in your name. That’s why no website, and no one at Murmur, will ever ask you for your username, your password or your Recovery Key to delete your account.
What we delete
#Deleted right away:
- your account and your sign-in record;
- your Recovery Key data, with its 2 previous versions;
- your keys, your devices and your device list;
- your notification tokens;
- your profile, and your encrypted account state (contacts, blocks, settings);
- the choices our servers apply for you;
- your contact links and invites, and the community passes you created for your groups;
- message requests waiting for your answer;
- your encrypted text backup;
- your account data and counters (dates, trust level, terms version, timers), except what’s listed below.
Your scheduled messages. They’re cancelled first, on our servers too, so none goes out after your account is gone. If Murmur can’t reach our servers to cancel them, your account stays, and the app tells you.
Messages waiting for you. Your device clears those it can when you delete your account. The rest, including messages in large groups, expire within 30 days, sealed and not linked to you.
Which chats you muted. Your device clears this when you delete your account. Otherwise, it goes once that chat is no longer used.
Copies in our server backups. They’re deleted within 14 days.
What isn’t deleted, and for how long
#| What | Why | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Messages you sent | They’re on the devices of the people who received them, and we can’t reach those devices | As long as those people keep them |
| Messages you sent that haven’t arrived yet | Our servers don’t know who sent them, so they can’t tell they’re yours | 30 days at most |
| Photos, files and voice messages you sent | They aren’t tied to you, so we can’t tell they’re yours | Until their 30 days end, or while pinned in a group |
| Records of your scheduled messagesOnly their time and whether they went out or were cancelled, without the message | Nothing in them points to you, so we can’t tell they’re yours | 30 days at most |
| Your place in your groups | It’s sealed for each group’s members, so we can’t see it | Until their apps remove you |
| Your username | So nobody can get it at once and pretend to be you | 90 days, unlinked from you. Then it can go to someone else |
| A note for each device that leftIts device ID, your username, why it left and the day, never what it held | So someone still writing to that device learns it’s gone, instead of losing their message | 180 days at most |
| An abuse report, by you or about you, while a safety case is open | We must finish the case | 90 days after the case is closed |
| What we used to decide about your account, like a restriction or a ban | So the decision can be checked and challenged | At least 1 year after the decision |
| A report the law makes us send to the authorities | The law requires it | 1 year |
| Data under a legal hold | A legal order requires it | Only the data concerned, while the hold lasts |
| Records of what our staff did on your account | To check our own work | 2 years, longer only under a legal hold, no longer linked to you |
| Emails you sent us, and messages to Murmur’s official account | We may still need them to answer you | As long as we need them to answer you |
| Crash and debug reports you sent | They help us fix a problem | Until the problem is fixed |
| Records of the sign-up check | They were never linked to your account | Up to a month, and 30 days for the count per device |
| Totals, like the number of active accounts | They were never tied to your account | As totals |
| Your purchases in the App Store or Google Play | They’re the store’s own records | Under the store’s policy |
If you’re away for a long time
#- Murmur deletes an account after a time without use. The default is 12 months. You can choose 1, 3, 6, 12, 18 or 24 months in Settings, with “Delete my account if I’m away for…”.
- “Use” means any of your devices signing in to Murmur.
- You’re warned first, with a banner in the app from 30 days before, and notifications with no content 30 days and 7 days before.
- Then the account is deleted, exactly as above.
- Separately, a device that stays offline for 90 days is removed, after a notice at day 75. Your last device never is.
Delete only part of your data
#- Remove a device you no longer use, from Settings › Devices on another of your devices. The device added most recently goes in one tap. Any other needs your password or Recovery Key, on a device that’s had Murmur for more than 72 hours. Our servers delete its keys and its notification token. Messages still waiting for it can’t be linked to it, so they expire within 30 days.
- Delete chats or messages from your devices, or turn on disappearing messages for chats that shouldn’t linger. Clear Vault empties your Vault. In Waiting Messages, from a chat’s Info, you can delete a scheduled message before it goes out, and messages you saved for later.
- Delete what you sent, for everyone. Delete for Everyone takes a message you sent off every phone in the chat, with no time limit, and leaves nothing in its place. Clear All Chats for Everyone, in Settings › Chats, does it for every message you sent, in every chat and group, after your password. Someone offline gets the deletion when they’re back, within 30 days. What others sent stays on their phones. Anyone who saved or forwarded your message, or took a screenshot, keeps that copy, and someone who blocked you keeps what you sent.
How long it takes
#| How | When it’s deleted |
|---|---|
| In the app, on a device past its first 72 hours | Right away |
| In the app, on a device in its first 72 hours | When those 72 hours end |
| After a long time without use | At the end of the period you chose (12 months by default) |
| Copies in our server backups | Within 14 days |
| Your username | Free for others after 90 days |
Questions
#Write to [email protected], and we’ll answer.
Our Privacy Policy explains what we keep and for how long.
Murmur will never ask for your password or Recovery Key on a website or in a message.