Delete your Heard account

Document key: heard-account-deletion
Version: 1.10.0
Last updated: October 19, 2026
Effective date: October 19, 2026
Canonical URL: https://discoverheard.com/delete-account

You can permanently delete your Heard account from the app. Heard's web deletion form also supports password accounts that are not connected to Apple.

Heard is published by Justin Lauinger as an individual.

Account deletion is permanent. It is not a temporary suspension, and your account cannot be recovered after deletion completes.

Delete in the Heard app

1. Sign in to the account you want to delete.
2. Open Settings.
3. Under Account Actions, choose Delete account.
4. Review what deletion does.
5. If Apple is connected to your account, verify with that Apple identity. Otherwise, re-enter your current Heard password or verify with a Google identity already linked to that Heard account.
6. Type DELETE and confirm Delete account (announced as Permanently delete account by a screen reader).

In the updated app (build 16 and later), Delete account is also available during unfinished profile or topic setup, on the eligibility screen, after an age restriction, and when the account profile cannot load. You do not need to finish onboarding or accept updated eligibility terms to start deletion. The same identity verification and permanent-deletion confirmation apply.

If two-step verification is enabled for your Heard account, the app also asks for the current six-digit code from your connected authenticator app. In build 19 and later, accounts without a verified authenticator are not shown that code field. Heard checks your account security before allowing deletion to continue. Apple Account verification is handled separately in Apple's system sheet.

If Apple is connected to your Heard account, Apple will ask you to confirm that connection when you delete, even if you also use a password or Google. Heard revokes that Apple access before deleting your Heard account. If Apple cannot complete verification or revocation, retry deletion to verify Apple again. This step does not delete your Apple Account.

The app will stop playback, clear the native queue, remove local Heard sessions and files, and return to the welcome screen after the server confirms completion.

Delete without the app

Use Heard's canonical account-deletion page. It provides the deletion form for password accounts that are not connected to Apple, without requiring the Heard app. An API-hosted form is also available at:

Current API-host deletion fallback

On the form:

1. enter the email address for the Heard account;
2. enter the current password;
3. type DELETE;
4. acknowledge that deletion is permanent and private-audio retention applies; and
5. select Permanently delete account.

Your email and password are sent directly from the browser to Supabase Auth. Heard's application API receives the resulting short-lived access token, whose claims include the account ID and email, not your raw password. The form clears the password field after the attempt.

The public web form supports email/password accounts that are not connected to Apple. Apple-connected accounts must use the current Heard iPhone app to confirm and revoke Apple's connection before deletion. If you use Apple or Google and cannot use the app, contact support@discoverheard.com from an email address you can access and write Account deletion in the subject. Include your Heard handle and, if you know it, the authentication email or Apple private-relay address associated with the account. Do not send a password, identity token, authorization code, verification code, or screenshot containing credentials. Heard may request other information reasonably necessary to verify the account and request before deletion.

What happens to your data

After a valid deletion request, Heard's system is designed to:

• delete your category preferences, supported relationship records, and raw account-linked listening events;
• stop active upload and audio-processing work;
• delete submission-specific OpenAI permission receipts when your profile is minimized; deleting the authentication account also clears any remaining receipts;
• remove your posts from public feeds and content-detail responses;
• remove personal report details;
• delete identifying fields and minimize or pseudonymize the profile, content, and audio-asset records that remain for integrity or audit;
• permanently delete your Supabase Auth user after database erasure succeeds; and
• clear the Heard app's protected session credentials, other local app storage, cached files, document files, playback state, and local drafts when mobile completion succeeds.

Your published posts become unavailable through Heard's feed and content API as part of the deletion transaction.

Deleting a listener account removes the raw event history that linked qualified listens to that account. Future ranking snapshots cannot use those deleted rows. Heard does not recalculate an already-created identity-free lifetime total or ranking snapshot because those aggregates no longer contain a listener identifier. Unpinned ranking snapshots become eligible for bounded deletion 45 days after their snapshot date. A bootstrap snapshot selected for ranking may remain pinned until it is replaced or ranking is deactivated. A creator's deleted post and its total are removed from Heard's current public content responses under the existing post-deletion lifecycle.

Deleting your account removes your follower-notification device registrations, notification events and queued deliveries from Heard's application database. The app also clears its local notification preferences and requests removal of Heard alerts already displayed on that device. An alert previously handed to a delivery provider or displayed on another device may remain under that provider's or device's controls.

Audio deletion timing

Audio bytes have two different storage paths:

• Previously public audio: After a valid deletion decision, Heard removes the post from current public APIs and playback eligibility and queues the public object for origin and CDN deletion. Heard's internal technical target is denial of ordinary and byte-range access within five minutes. The target does not guarantee that third-party copies disappear.
• Private-quarantine audio: Originals and private derivatives remain inaccessible and become eligible for scheduled physical deletion after the applicable retention cutoff, ordinarily 30 days. Eligibility is not a promise that provider copies, logs, replicas, or backups have all been erased on that exact day. A valid restricted legal or safety hold can delay deletion.

The five-minute target is an internal operating objective, not a guaranteed completion time or permission to delay a legally required removal. If Heard's own delivery remains available after an authorized removal, that is a removal failure requiring follow-up. Heard cannot remove a copy independently obtained and retained by another person or service while the audio was public.

Records that may remain

Heard may retain limited records that no longer have an active authentication link or presence in current public APIs, including:

• one-way deletion hashes, request status, bounded failure codes, and timestamps;
• stable internal profile, content, asset, or request identifiers, some of which may have been public before deletion;
• identity-free lifetime post totals that no longer contain a listener link;
• identity-free per-content ranking snapshot items containing a content identifier, aggregate qualified-listener-day count, and bounded weight, but no listener or profile identifier, for the snapshot lifecycle described above;
• policy-document and creator-attestation receipts tied to a minimized or pseudonymized profile, plus immutable per-upload provenance/content-warning declarations tied to minimized internal upload/content records;
• technical upload, inspection, automated-moderation job/attempt/minimized evidence, versioned moderation-case/decision/evidence-access, media-revocation action/attempt/event, storage-disposition, and deletion proof;
• minimized security, fraud-prevention, and abuse-review records; and
• content or context preserved in restricted private custody under a valid legal hold or legal duty, including child-safety evidence, under an approved operating procedure.

These retained records are not necessarily anonymous because a stable identifier may remain linkable to a prior public copy or restricted operational record. Heard retains them only while reasonably necessary for integrity, security, enforcement, dispute resolution, legal compliance, or proof. Provider logs, replicas, caches, and backups may follow separate security, continuity, legal, and backup-cycle periods under provider configurations and terms.

If deletion is interrupted

The deletion request is designed to be retry-safe. Database erasure occurs before Supabase Auth deletion. If Auth deletion temporarily fails, your content and identifying application data remain unavailable, while a limited internal association with the authentication account remains only so you can authenticate again and resume the same request.

If a success response is lost, the app or web form can check the durable request status. Repeating the request does not intentionally create a second deletion operation.

Before you delete

• Before deleting your account, use Settings → Account & Security → Your data & privacy to create and save a portable account export. The snapshot includes retained raw listening events linked to your account and your submission-specific OpenAI permission receipts, including upload references, permission versions, and acceptance times. It also includes retained follower-notification event references and device-registration metadata, without delivery tokens, sign-in-session identifiers or provider delivery credentials. It does not include identity-free ranking snapshots because those records cannot be attributed to one listener. Audio download addresses in an export can expire after 15 minutes.
• Deleting the app from your phone does not delete your Heard account.
• Signing out does not delete your account.
• Deleting an individual post does not delete your account.
• Heard does not currently offer subscriptions that must be canceled separately.

Need help?

If you cannot sign in or complete the form, follow the support instructions above and write Account deletion in the subject line. Do not send your password or another credential.

Heard may request information reasonably necessary to verify the account and the request. The support address is active and operated by Heard's individual publisher but is not staffed 24 hours a day and is not an emergency service. Product restrictions, retention targets, and support availability do not extend a legally required response or deletion deadline. Lawful exceptions are assessed for the affected records; they do not automatically justify retaining an entire account.

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