Does Badoo Delete Inactive Accounts?

No. Badoo's help center says that being inactive for a long period will not delete your account automatically, and neither will deleting the dating app from your phone. The account stays until you delete it yourself.

Two things are easy to mix up here. One is the app on your phone. The other is the account on Badoo's side. Removing the app touches only the first. Going quiet for months touches neither.

So a man who dropped Badoo a year ago and wonders whether it is gone should assume it is still there. If you used a phone number, an email address or a linked Google, Facebook or Apple account to sign up, the same login should still open it.

The simplest test is to try to log in. Use the method you signed up with: the phone number, the email address, or the linked Google, Facebook or Apple account. If it opens, the account exists, and you can decide what to do with it.

If it will not open, that does not mean Badoo deleted it for being idle. Badoo says an account locked for safety reasons may be under review, and that Support can help with access problems. A login that fails is far more often the wrong method than a missing account, so try each way in before you assume the worst.

An account you forgot about is still an account with your name, age and photos on it. You may have changed since then. Your pictures may be old, your city may be different, and you may not want a woman to find the version of you from two years back.

That is the practical reason to deal with an idle account on purpose, rather than counting on Badoo to tidy it up. It will not.

Badoo has a Hide account toggle. It sits in Settings under Account, and you can switch it back whenever you want to be visible again.

This is the right tool when you are tired, busy or on a break and plan to return. It takes you out of sight without destroying anything you built. a dating coach's view of online dating is that you should treat it like a business and keep your assets. Photos that tested well and openers that got replies are assets, and starting from nothing every time you come back is slow.

Deleting is a different act, and you have to do it yourself. Open Profile, tap the gear icon for Settings, tap Account, and tap Delete account at the bottom.

Cancel any Premium or Extra subscription first. Badoo warns that a subscription may not cancel on its own when the account is deleted, and you do not want to find that out from a bank statement.

If you delete by accident, Badoo support can restore the account for up to 28 days. After that the account is not recoverable, so be sure.

Anything that lives only inside the app goes when the account goes. If a woman matters to you, move the conversation to her phone number first, and do it while the account still exists. coach tends to ask for a number within a handful of messages and ties the ask to a plan, which keeps it light.

Also save the photos that worked. If you had a lead picture that drew the most likes, keep the original file. That one image is worth more than anything else the account holds.

Hide it if you might come back. Delete it if you are done with Badoo, if you have met someone and want to give it a real chance, or if you simply want your data gone.

A bad week is not a reason to delete. Plenty of men delete an app after a slow stretch, then open the next app with the same photos and the same first messages and get the same result. The account was not the problem. If the results were weak, change one thing, such as the lead photo, and see what happens before you throw out the whole account.

Log in once. Look at the photos with fresh eyes and ask whether they still look like you. If they do not, replace them or hide the account until they do. If you are not coming back, delete it using the steps above. Either way, make the choice yourself, because Badoo does not make it for you.