Today Google again announced plans to delete inactive accounts to free up these usernames for new owners. According to Google, if you have not used your Google account in the last two years, starting in December 2023, they will start deleting these accounts.
This news applies to all their platforms except one, and that is YouTube. Google says any account with YouTube channels, videos, or comments, will be exempt from his policy. This is great news, as many had feared that Google would wipe out millions of videos from now inactive accounts.
Google also says any account with a gift card with a monetary balanced attached to it will also be exempt from this new policy.
Here is what Google wants you to know about this new policy:
What this means for you:
- These changes do not impact you unless you have been inactive in your Google Account for two years or have not used your account to sign in to any Google service for over two years.
- While the changes go into effect today, the earliest we would enforce any account deletion would be December 2023.
- If your account is considered inactive, we will send several reminder emails to both you and your recovery emails (if any have been provided) before we take any action or delete any account content. These reminder emails will go out at least 8 months before any action is taken on your account.
- After a Google Account is deleted, the Gmail address for the deleted account cannot be used again when creating a new Google Account.
Other ways to keep your account active include:
- Reading or sending an email
- Using Google Drive
- Watching a YouTube video
- Sharing a photo
- Downloading an app
- Using Google Search
- Using Sign in with Google to sign in to a third-party app or service
Our priority is to make it as easy as possible for you to keep your account active, if you want to, and we’ll ensure you have adequate notice before any account is impacted by this change. So before an account is deleted, Google will send email notifications to the Google Account and its recovery email (if one has been provided). You should verify that your recovery email is up to date.
So if you still have an old Google account you want to keep, you may want to use it soon.