Dating profiles can be a bit like that ex who keeps calling or texting you: annoyingly tricky to get rid of completely. It should be easy to delete your witty bio, photos, and list of likes and dislikes, but there are often a few less obvious steps you need to wipe your presence completely.
Deleting the Bumble, Tinder, Hinge, or Coffee Meets Bagel apps from your phone does not get rid of your profile — it merely removes the app from your home screen. If you download the app again through the App Store or Google Play, your account will still be there when you log in. Similarly, although most dating apps offer the option to delete your profile in Settings — which you should do — there's still one more step you should take to be sure it's gone for good.
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Think back to when you first downloaded the app. Remember connecting it to your Facebook account? It's smart to sever the app's ties to Facebook and disable the permissions you provided when you first connected it to your account. Some apps, such as Tinder, will automatically do this when you delete your profile in the app's settings. But others, such as Hinge, require a little extra work.
To delete an app's Facebook connection on your phone, open the Facebook app, tap the menu icon on the bottom far right of the toolbar, and scroll down to Settings. Select "Account Settings" from the list that pops up and then open the "Apps" folder. Within that, tap the first section, "Logged in with Facebook." You'll see a full list of Apps using your Facebook profile; clicking on each one shows the info you're providing. In many cases, this includes your public profile — your name, profile picture, and other information on your account that's public — as well as your friend list and email address. Permissions vary from app to app, but if you're unsure how much of your data the app has access to, it's smart to check here.
To completely sever the connection between the app and your Facebook profile, scroll past the list of info you're providing, and tap "remove app" at the bottom of the screen. You'll be asked to confirm this removal. Do that, and the ties are cut.
On the web, you can delete an app by tapping the arrow icon on the upper toolbar on Facebook. Select Settings from the dropdown menu, then go to your Apps using the same process described above.
So remember, if you're looking to leave your dating app days behind you, delete your account in the app first, then disconnect it from Facebook (if it was connected to begin with). Change your mind at a later point in time? So long as an app still exists, you'll always be able to create a new profile and start swiping again.