Many people have experienced deleting some or all of their tweets. Perhaps it is to enhance the professional image in the eyes of potential employers, or perhaps it is to feel uncertain about the development direction of Twitter after many changes in recent years.

For whatever reason, mastering the method of deleting tweets is very practical: just click or touch the three dots in the upper right corner of the tweet, and then click Delete Just do it. This option is very conspicuous – it is the first option and the only option to be displayed in a striking red font. However, this one-by-item method requires a lot of time and effort. Deleting tweets in batches requires a special application.

Five points to know before deleting a tweet

Most third-party tweet removal apps work similarly because Twitter gives almost the same access to all of these apps. This also means that they all have the same limitations.

1. A large number of access rights need to be granted

No doubt, unlike manual deletion, Tweet Deletion app requires access to your account and perform operations such as deletion, cancel likes, and cancel forwarding. These platforms often require a lot of access, including permission to view your tweets and follower lists, and permission to post and delete content on your behalf. This may sound a bit worrying, but it is standard practice for such applications.

[Related: Twitter alternative Bluesky is fun and friendly, but has a small number of users]

2. Need to start on a small scale

After you grant these applications the appropriate permissions, they use Twitter's Application Programming Interface (API) as a backdoor to enter your account. But the API is limited in functionality, and since many applications use this gateway, the Tweet Delete Tool only has easy access to your most recent 3200 tweets and likes. To access more content, you need a file with your full Twitter history.

3. It takes time – it may take several days

To delete more than 3200 tweets, you need to download your Twitter archive, which is really a large file with all the information about your account – from every tweet you send to the cyberspace to you Like, retweet and favorite tweets.

If you've been active on Twitter for a while, your archive will contain a lot of data, so be prepared to wait 24 to 36 hours before downloading the file.

A lot of content can also lead to huge file sizes, so don't be surprised if your archive is more than a few GB. It can take a while to download it (and to upload it to the tweet removal platform later).

What's worse is that there may be a delay between the app requesting Twitter to delete your tweet and the actual deletion. It depends on the number of tweets you want to delete and the functionality of the app you are using. It can take 5 minutes, 6 hours, or as we have experienced it, a full day.

All in all, it is impossible to accurately predict how long it takes to delete a tweet, but it is certain that this is not something that is done instantly. If you have any reason to believe your potential future employer will view your tweets this weekend, start the process now.

4. Deleted tweets will disappear forever

This seems obvious, but it is worth reiterating: after deleting the tweet, it will not be restored. You can access your tweets privately using the archive (you can convert them into CSV files and open them as a spreadsheet), but you can't repost them, you can only post brand new tweets. Keep this in mind when using automatic parameters (for example, instructing the application to delete everything within a specific date range or content containing a specific keyword).

Batch deletion of anything is at risk of accidentally deleting the content you want to keep. So if you have some tweets you want to keep, be sure to choose the tool you use with caution.

5. The number of tweets may not be restored to zero

If you plan to start from scratch, be aware that you may not be able to lower the tweet counter to zero—even if you choose to delete all. This is because some tweets may no longer be accessible.

This happens, for example, when the content you forwarded is subsequently deleted, or the account that originally posted it is deleted, suspended, or set to private. Your retweet still exists, but Twitter can't get it, so even if your profile is very clean, it will be reflected on your counter.

[Related: How to delete your data from a personal information search website]

Remember that some or all of these restrictions may vary depending on the platform you are using, as some developers may manage these restrictions better than others. If Twitter decides to adjust its API, the situation may also be the same every day—for example, it has begun to cut off access to the bot account.

At present, if you want to partially or completely clear your Twitter presence traces, the rest is to choose your tool.

Three applications that can help you delete tweets

Which platform you choose to delete tweets depends heavily on how much you are willing to pay (if any) and how many tweets you wish to delete. The more tweets you will benefit from complex search and filtering tools, but this is often paid.

Each of the following applications has different advantages and features to suit your needs. Find your favorite app and say goodbye to those tweets.

Semiphemeral

Semiphemeral is one of the few tweet removal apps that offer free use of all tools, so you will never encounter a paywall.

It is worth mentioning that Semiphemeral defines itself as an anti-fascist, which is more than just a marketing tag. If you often like tweets posted by "famous racists, misogynists, anti-Semitists, homophobia, neo-Nazis and other fascists", the platform is not available, but it's not clear yet What specific accounts do they refer to? Fortunately, it is not difficult to restore the good form of Semiphemeral. If you like four to ten tweets from an account that the platform follows, the app will tell you what tweets it tags after you log in, and if you cancel the like, you can access the service. If you like more than ten tweets from these accounts, you need to contact Semiphemeral directly to try to unblock.

If you don't have any issues with logging in to Semiphemeral (you need your Twitter credentials), you'll find the platform is very concise, which makes it easy to delete a large number of tweets. Unlike other applications on this list, Semiphemeral immediately requests your archive from Twitter, which, as mentioned above, will take some time. In my case, it took over 48 hours to download over 35,000 tweets (don’t judge me – I’ve been active on it for a while). Semiphemeral won't notify you when you're ready to delete your tweet, so you should open the site in a browser tab and monitor it regularly.

You can only adjust the setting during the waiting period, which will determine what Semiphemeral can and cannot be deleted. There are three customizable sections, each with detailed explanation to avoid any errors. First, select the checkbox next to Delete old tweets and determine how old the tweets must be to be deleted – any newer tweets will remain online. Here you will notice a slight disadvantage: you cannot select a specific date. Semiphemeral calculates time in days, so if you want to delete everything from about five years ago, you have to enter 1825 days. The next section allows you to cancel likes and unretweet posts after a certain number of days, and the last section allows you to request Semiphemeral to delete your private messages. The platform warns that it can only automatically delete private messages sent within the past 30 days, so if you want to go beyond this range, you must follow the instructions under the Private Messages section.

Go back to the navigation bar at the top of the screen and you will find the Tweets section where you can view your tweets and exclude from deletion by selecting Check boxes to save them from deletion. Lists are not arranged in chronological order, so you may want to use the bar at the bottom of the screen to filter your tweets by word. Warning: Add a space at the end of the word to use it as a filter. If you don't do this, tweets that contain not only the word "car", but also the words "carnation" and "carnivore".

After completing the setting adjustment, go to the dashboard and click to launch Semiphemeral. The platform will put your requests into the queue and you just have to wait. Once the deletion is complete (you need to check your dashboard), the platform will automatically queue for another round of deletion for the next day. If you don't want the app to delete tweets for you every day, click to pause Semiphemeral or it will continue to run, deleting tweets every day based on the parameters you set.

TweetDelete

First of all, what you are able to do with TweetDelete will depend on whether you have a premium account.

Using the free tier, you can delete up to 10 tweets and likes per month. The process is similar to Semiphemeral: You log in to the platform using your Twitter credentials, grant it operational permissions, and then start your first tweet deletion task.

Paid users (the plan starts at $6 per month), can delete 500, 3200 or all tweets per month, and the Pro and Premium plans can even run the automatic deletion task. These tasks may include deleting tweets that contained the word “cat” a week ago, or deleting tweets that contained a specific hashtag a month ago. Your tasks will run at the same time, so everything will be done at once, and as long as you pay, they will continue to run until you disable them.

No matter how much you pay, TweetDelete can only delete 3200 likes – just like Semiphemeral. As mentioned above, this is the access restriction built into Twitter in its API, so no one can do this at the moment, either these apps or any other apps can do beyond this limit. The same goes for waiting time – TweetDelete handles tasks every three days, which may add an additional 72 hours of tweets to each batch set to automatically delete.

If you want to delete your entire Twitter history in one fell swoop, you need to be a premium TweetDelete user. Only in this way can you delete everything by uploading the archive file. The platform provides an interface that makes it easier to find any exceptions you want automatic task skipping, as well as an advanced search mode that allows you to use the tweet ID number (19 digits at the end of each tweet URL) Delete a specific tweet. If you want to manage your tweet history regularly, this feature, along with the ability to run multiple simultaneously automatically delete tasks, makes this service worth the money. But if you are not planning to delete more tweets in the near future and just want to delete old ones, sticking to free platforms like Semiphemeral might be a better option.

TweetDeleter

What really stands out about TweetDeleter is its more complete interface, which is perfect if you think you might benefit from some guidance when deleting old tweets.

To delete all tweets or any number of tweets over 3200 tweets, you have to pay for an unlimited account, which will cost you $72 per year. Before you splurge, you can try the platform at any time on the free tier, but you can't do much with that basic access: delete five tweets per month, run five keyword searches, and set up a swearing filter. By the way, these are the services you already get on Twitter itself. But that’s not “either go all out or give up”: TweetDeleter offers multiple paid access tiers, starting at $4 per month and upfront $48 per year.

[Related: Here are 6 Twitter alternatives if you are looking]

On TweetDeleter, you can search and delete tweets, set up an automatic process (the equivalent of a TweetDelete task), delete everything, and view old tweets you have deleted.

The last option is an option you cannot find on any other platform in this list. While TweetDelete allows you to open Twitter history as a spreadsheet, TweetDeleter provides them with a space within its platform so that you can access your deleted tweets with a more beautiful, more friendly interface. As we mentioned, this doesn't mean you can recover these tweets - only save them as references. The only way to restore them to your account is to post them as new tweets.

Unfortunately, this "Twitter Cemetery" feature is a completely different product that only paid users can pay an extra $4 per month to access. If you keep returning to your archive to relive Twitter’s past glory, this extra expense might be worth it, but if you don’t have any attachment to what you thought of when you first opened your account, you might want to skip this app Programs and functions.

What to do after deleting a tweet

If you like bots that clear tweet records regularly, you don't have to do anything more, just have the app run in the background. However, if deleting a tweet is a one-time thing, please revoke the permissions you granted to the application you use after completing the action.

This is very important from a privacy perspective – the fewer apps you have access to your account, the better. But you don't know what will happen in the future either. If control over one of the apps falls into the hands of the bad guys, the criminals may directly access your information.

To revoke the permissions of third-party accounts to your data, open your Twitter profile on the web and go to More , Settings and Support and settings and privacy . On your mobile device, you will find the same option after you click on your avatar (top left corner of the screen). There, tap or tap Security and Account Access and then tap Apps and Sessions. Finally, go to Connected Apps and you will see a list of third-party apps connected to your account. To remove them from the list, click on each app and select Revoke application permissions .

If you need to delete more tweets in the future, you can easily access these tools again, so by telling them to leave, you won't lose too much, if any.

This story has been updated. It was originally published on November 8, 2022.

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