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If You Deactivate Your Twitter Can Someone Else Take Your Username?

 
By Nidhi Nangia. July 11, 2018
If You Deactivate Your Twitter Can Someone Else Take Your Username?

Twitter has been a popular social media platform since 2006. People often create more than one Twitter account for different offline and online; business entities, purposes and events. However, many factors can lead to someone wanting to delete their Twitter account. You can easily deactivate your account by accessing your Account Settings. All your tweets, comments and posts will disappear as soon as you deactivate your Twitter account. But once the account is deleted, can you return and/or reuse your Twitter username? You may be wondering if you deactivate your Twitter, can someone else take your username? Let’s find out the answer to this here at OneHOWTO.

Simple answer: Yes

If you deactivate your Twitter, can someone else take your Twitter username? The simple answer to this question is ‘Yes’. For obvious reasons, only active Twitter usernames are not available to be claimed. Your old username becomes available to be taken as soon as you leave it. This means that if you deactivate your Twitter account, it can be instantly claimed by anyone else.

Why deactivate your Twitter account? change your username instead!

If you want to get rid of your old Twitter handle and want to change it, you don’t need to deactivate your old account. You can simply, change your username just by logging into your Twitter account and opening the Account Settings. Deactivating your Twitter account will void your email address and username, and you won’t be able to use them to create your new account. In order to preserve your information, you can change your email address and username in your existing account. Follow these step by step instructions to do that:

  1. Open Twitter and log into it using your username and password.
  2. On the top right corner, you will see the Settings button. Click on that button.
  3. In the ‘username’ box, type your new username that you desire.
  4. As you write, Twitter will let you know if that username is available to be taken or not. There are more than 500 million people who use Twitter, and you have a limitation of using only 15 characters in your username. So, chances are less that you will get exactly the same name that you want. If your desired username is not available, try a different variation to what you wrote, and check again if it is available. Twitter will itself give you some suggestions that you may select from. If you like a username, choose it immediately, as it may not remain available for much longer.
  5. While changing your username, you may want to change your email address too. Sometimes, if you are changing your domain name along with your new account, then you would need to change your email address as well. If you change your email address, you will receive a confirmation mail from Twitter. So, make sure that you can access this email account.
  6. Click on the ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom of the page.
If You Deactivate Your Twitter Can Someone Else Take Your Username? - Why deactivate your Twitter account? change your username instead!

Changing your Twitter profile name

Instead of deactivating your Twitter account and creating a new one with a new profile name, you have the option to change your profile name as well. Click here to know How To Change Your Twitter Username, or follow these instructions:

  1. Login to your Twitter account using your username and password.
  2. You will find a ‘Profile’ link on the side menu on the left hand. By clicking on this link, you will be directed to a new panel that shows the detail of your profile page (account). This is the page where you will have to make the required changes.
  3. First of all, edit your Twitter profile name. It can fit up to 20 characters, and you can select any name that you like.
  4. The new profile name on the top of your screen should show your new Twitter username.
  5. Have a look at your existing profile picture. If you want to change it, you can change it by clicking on the picture and uploading a new one.
  6. If you want to change your domain name, you can do so by making changes in your web box.
  7. Finally, go through your Bio information. If anything seems outdated, you may go ahead to update that.
  8. Click on ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom of the page, and you are done. You have successfully edited your Twitter profile name and given re-branded your existing twitter account.
If You Deactivate Your Twitter Can Someone Else Take Your Username? - Changing your Twitter profile name

How to deactivate twitter account

We have already told you How To Delete My Twitter Account. Here are the steps to deactivate your Twitter account:

  1. Open Twitter on a computer system, since the option to deactivate the account is not provided in the mobile app version. You can either open Twitter on your web browser, or open the desktop version of Twitter on your mobile phone’s web browser.
  2. Login to your Twitter account using your username and password.
  3. On the upper right corner of the home page, click on the gear icon.
  4. A new menu will appear, from which you have to select ‘Settings’.
  5. At the bottom, you will see ‘Deactivate my account’ button. You have to scroll down in order to find this button.
  6. Click on this button.
  7. A warning page will appear, which will inform you about the deactivation warnings.
  8. After deactivating your account, the Twitter servers will retain your information for 30 days. During this period, you can reactivate your Twitter simply by logging in using your username and password. After 30 days, your account and information will be permanently deleted, and you will not be able to retrieve it.
  9. After reading the warnings, click on the ‘Deactivate@accountname’ button. This will turn your account off.
  10. Enter your password in order to confirm this deactivation. Complete deactivation may take some time, as the process has to make its way through the servers.

Deactivating your Twitter, and keeping your old username

Before you deactivate your Twitter account, you have the option to retain your email address and twitter username so that it remains available to you, and no one can use it. Here are the steps to follow:

  1. Open Twitter on a web browser.
  2. Click ‘Settings’ icon that you would see under the profile icon.
  3. Type a new username in the username box.
  4. Type a new email address in the email address box.
  5. Click on ‘Save Changes’ at the bottom.
  6. Enter your Twitter password to confirm the changes being made.
  7. Twitter will send you a link in your email address that you have to click in order to confirm it.
  8. Now, your username and email will be available to reuse within 30 days.

Reactivating your old Twitter account

Once you deactivate your Twitter account, you are given only 30 days to reactivate it. You can
reactivate it
by logging into your account using your old Twitter username and password. After 30 days, Twitter will permanently delete your information and you will not be able to retrieve it. Remember, you will not be able to login to your Twitter account using your old username and password. If you are using other Twitter tools, like Buffer, you will need to change the information there too.

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