If your app lets anyone create an account, both stores now expect a way to delete it — and they expect it differently. Apple wants the flow inside the app. Google wants a URL on the open web. You need to satisfy both, and doing one does not cover the other.
What Google requires
Play Console's Data safety form asks for a Delete Account URL. The requirement applies to any app that offers account creation — email and password, or a third-party login like Sign in with Google or Apple — and it applies whether creating the account is optional or mandatory.
The two conditions that matter:
- It must be reachable from the web. This is the whole point of the rule: a user who has already uninstalled your app should not have to reinstall it to get their account removed.
- It must let them initiate deletion, or explain exactly how. A form, a signed-in deletion button, or clear instructions all work. A generic "contact us" page that never mentions deletion does not.
Google also asks you to distinguish deleting the account from deleting the data, and to say what you retain and why. Retention for a legal obligation is allowed — being silent about it is what causes problems.
What Apple requires
Apple's guideline 5.1.1(v) takes the opposite angle: if your app supports account creation, it must let the user initiate deletion from within the app. A link to email support is generally not sufficient on its own, and this is one of the rejection reasons that still catches teams out years after the rule landed.
In practice most apps end up with both: an in-app deletion flow for Apple, and a web page for Google. The page is also the honest answer for a user who has moved on and just wants their data gone.
What the page should say
Keep it short and specific. A deletion page that works for both stores covers:
- Which app and account it applies to.
- The steps to delete from inside the app, for users who still have it.
- A route for users who do not — a form, or an email address with what to include.
- What gets deleted, and what is retained, for how long, and why.
- How long the process takes.
That is one static page. It does not need a backend to satisfy the requirement, as long as a human is genuinely reading whatever route it offers.
Where to host it
Same shape as the other two URLs the stores demand: a public HTTPS page that stays up. If you have no site, you can host it free as a static site and paste the URL into Play Console.
If you are setting up store paperwork from scratch, it is least effort to write all three pages together and deploy them as one zip:
- Privacy policy — required by Apple for every app, and by Google Play.
- Support page — required by App Store Connect.
- Account deletion — this one, if you have accounts.
Three files, one upload, three URLs. It is the least interesting hour of a launch and the one most likely to hold up a submission that is otherwise ready.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does my app need an account deletion URL if account creation is optional?
Yes. Google Play applies the requirement to any app that offers a way to create an account, whether that is mandatory or optional, and whether it uses email and password or a third-party login.
Why does the deletion URL have to work outside the app?
Because someone who has already uninstalled the app still has an account with you. Google requires the URL to be reachable from the web so a user does not have to reinstall in order to ask for deletion.
Does Apple require an account deletion URL too?
Apple requires account deletion to be initiated from inside the app under guideline 5.1.1(v). A support page explaining the route is expected practice, but the in-app flow is the part Apple checks.
Is a contact form enough for the deletion URL?
A page that lets a user initiate a deletion request, or clearly explains how to, satisfies Google. What fails is a page that only offers a generic support email with no mention of deletion.
Do I have to delete everything immediately?
No. You may retain data you are legally required to keep, and you should say what and for how long on the page. What you cannot do is offer no route at all.
