Apple's account deletion requirement, and how it differs from Google's

If you ship on both stores, you are answering two requirements that overlap but are not the same one — and the difference is where submissions get sent back.

What Apple asks for

App Store Review Guideline 5.1.1(v) requires apps that support account creation to let a user initiate deletion of the account from within the app. It has applied since 30 June 2022, so it is not new; what is new is how routinely it is checked.

Three things about it catch people out:

• Deactivating is not deleting. Apple’s guidance is explicit that temporarily disabling or deactivating an account does not satisfy the requirement — the person has to be able to delete the account along with their personal data.
• It has to be findable. The option should be easy to find in the app. A path five screens deep behind an unlabelled menu is a rejection waiting to happen.
• Support-only does not count on Apple’s side. Telling the user to email you is a reasonable addition; it is not the in-app route the guideline asks for.

Where the two stores differ

	Apple	Google Play
In-app deletion route	Required (5.1.1(v))	Required
Public web URL for deletion	Not required as a field	Required, declared under App content → Data deletion
Where it is declared	Nothing to enter — the reviewer finds it in the app	A URL field in Play Console
Deleting the data itself	Yours	Yours

Read that table twice if you are porting an app across. The mistake in each direction is symmetrical: an iOS developer adding Android discovers they now need a web page they never built, and an Android developer adding iOS discovers the web URL they already have does not answer Apple, because Apple wants the route inside the app.

What “delete my account” has to actually do

Both stores are asking about the same underlying act, and neither of them can check it from the outside. When a user deletes their account:

• the account and the personal data associated with it are deleted from your systems;
• data you passed to processors is deleted there too — you ask them, and following up is your job;
• what you keep, you keep for a reason you can name. Billing and tax records usually must be retained by law, and saying so plainly is better than a promise you will break.

Nobody can do this part for you. Any service claiming to delete your users’ data does not have access to your database.

The rejection to expect, and the fix

The 5.1.1(v) rejections that arrive in practice are mundane:

• The app has sign-in but no deletion anywhere.
• There is a “delete account” button that opens a mail composer. Depending on the reviewer this is accepted or refused — build the real thing rather than betting on which one you get.
• Deletion exists but only in the web dashboard, not in the app.
• Deletion is really a deactivation, and the text says so.

The fix is product work, not paperwork: an in-app flow, one confirmation, and an actual deletion behind it. Budget it like a feature, because it is one.

Keep a record

Whatever the route, log what happened: the account, the date, what was deleted, what was retained and why. “We deleted it” is an assertion; a dated list is evidence — which matters far more the day a regulator asks than the day a reviewer does.

What AppFoyer does here

We host the web side: your app’s account-deletion page, which receives a request, stores it as your audit trail and notifies you — by email on any plan, or by Telegram or Slack on a paid one. That is the page Google Play’s URL field wants, and a reasonable place for an iOS user who has already uninstalled the app to land.

It is not a substitute for the in-app flow Apple asks for — nothing hosted elsewhere can be, because the guideline is about your app’s own interface. Build that; we will host the page beside it.

The authoritative sources

• App Store Review Guidelines — Apple. Section 5.1.1(v) is the text that decides.
• Account deletion within apps — upcoming requirements — Apple
• Understanding Google Play’s app account deletion requirements — Google Play Help

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