What happens to someone's WhatsApp when they die, and what the family can do

For many families, the WhatsApp group is where life happens: the photos of a new baby, the arrangements for Sunday lunch, the message that someone is in hospital. When someone in that group dies, their name stays there, between the last birthday wishes and the first condolences. Weeks later, their number may suddenly show a stranger's photo. Grief is hard enough without this, so here is a clear account of what can be done with their WhatsApp, their messages and their number, at whatever pace the family needs.

WhatsApp has no procedure for users who have died. It offers no memorial profile and no form for relatives. The account can be deleted from the person's own phone, if someone can unlock it. If nothing is done, WhatsApp deletes it after about 120 days without a connection. Until then, the account lingers like a digital ghost, held in place by unfinished business: a passcode nobody knows, a phone contract nobody has dealt with, a backup in a cloud account nobody can open.

The one account no bereavement checklist covers

Registering a death in the UK sets a lot in motion. In England, Scotland and Wales, Tell Us Once passes the news to HMRC, the DWP, the Passport Office, the DVLA and the local council in a single step. It does not reach private companies. Banks, insurers and utilities have to be contacted one by one, and phone providers and tech platforms fall on the family in the same way. Tell Us Once is not available in Northern Ireland, and Ireland has no equivalent.

WhatsApp is the hardest of these, for two reasons. It has no bereavement team to write to. And, as explained further down, UK and Irish law give executors no data rights to fall back on. In practice, what the family can do depends on two practical things: having the phone, and having the line.

Deal with the account before the phone contract

WhatsApp is tied to the phone number. Logging in on any phone takes a code sent by text to that number, so whoever holds the SIM holds the key. With it, the account can be closed calmly even if the phone itself is locked.

That is why the phone contract should wait. In the UK, Ofcom's switching rules keep a number portable to another provider for a month after the contract ends. In Ireland, EU telecoms law guarantees at least one month for the same purpose. After that, the provider can give the number to someone else, and no rule says when.

If a stranger is given that number and installs WhatsApp, they appear on friends' phones under the name saved in their contacts. They can even land inside the family group.

WhatsApp knows this happens. Its help centre tells anyone given a recycled number to leave every group tied to it and block contacts they do not recognise. Deleting the account is the only step that removes the person from all their groups at once. So the safe sequence is the account first, then any banking apps that send codes to that number, and the line last. Ask the provider whether a family member can take over the line before anyone cancels it.

Closing the account: three situations

What the family can do depends on what it has in hand.

• The phone, unlocked. Settings > Account > Delete my account, then enter the number with +44 or +353. It only works on the account's main phone, never on WhatsApp Web. Deletion cannot be undone. It removes the person from every group and, on Android, also deletes the Google backup. WhatsApp can take up to 90 days to clear everything from its systems.
• The line, but not the phone. Put the SIM in another phone, or ask for a replacement SIM once the line is in a family member's name. Install WhatsApp and verify the number with the code. Because WhatsApp allows one phone per number, the old phone is logged out and the account can be deleted from the new one. Messages stored on the locked phone stay there. If two-step verification was on, WhatsApp asks for a six-digit PIN. Without it, and without the linked email, the family has to wait seven days to reset it.
• Neither. There is no dedicated route. WhatsApp deletes the account through inactivity, usually after 120 days offline. The countdown only starts when the phone stops connecting. A handset left switched on, on the home wifi, keeps the account alive indefinitely.

For everyone in the family group

The family group often needs looking after too, and anyone in it can help.

Whoever wants to keep their conversation with the person can use «Export chat» in the chat's menu. It saves the messages, and optionally the photos and voice notes, to a file that can live somewhere safer than a phone. After that, deleting the chat avoids the jolt of seeing their name next to a stranger's photo one day, and the risk of messaging a stranger by mistake.

Group admins can remove the person from the group, with one exception: WhatsApp does not let anyone remove the person who created it. If they set up the family group, only deleting their account takes them out. And if their number ever comes back to life with a new photo, or sends a message, it belongs to someone else now. Nobody should reply with anything personal, and the number should be blocked.

The messages are not on WhatsApp's servers

Families sometimes assume a solicitor's letter or a court order will make WhatsApp hand over the messages. It cannot, because it does not have them. Messages are end-to-end encrypted, readable only on the phones that send and receive them, and WhatsApp deletes them from its servers once delivered. The conversations exist in two places only: on the phone itself, until someone uninstalls the app, and in a backup, if the person made one, on Google Drive for Android or iCloud for iPhone.

A backup can only be restored with the same number, the same Google or Apple account and, if it was encrypted, its password or 64-digit key, which WhatsApp cannot reset. Access to the Apple or Google account follows those companies' own rules. Apple gives a Legacy Contact chosen in life access to iCloud data, including backups. Google relies on Inactive Account Manager, set up in life, and otherwise provides content only in specific cases, never passwords.

What UK and Irish law gives families

Very little, as far as data goes. UK data protection law only protects living people, and the ICO, now the Information Commission, treats a dead person's information as outside the UK GDPR. In Ireland, the Data Protection Commission states that the GDPR does not apply to people who have died. A company may share data with relatives out of goodwill, but no regulator can require it. The executor named in the will, or the administrator where there is none, deals with the estate under the general law and with each platform on that platform's terms.

Several EU countries have gone further, using the room the GDPR leaves to each Member State on the data of the dead:

• France lets people leave binding instructions about their data after death.
• Italy lets relatives acting for family reasons exercise the dead person's data rights, unless the person forbade it in writing.
• Spain lets relatives and heirs ask organisations for access to the data or its erasure, and instruct platforms on what to do with the person's content.
• Germany's Federal Court of Justice held that a social media account, messages included, passes to the heirs like any other contract.

Where the person lived in one of those countries, the family may have rights it would not have at home.

When the estate reaches into the EU

A flat in Spain, a house in France, a bank account in Portugal: many British and Irish estates cross a border. Neither the UK nor Ireland takes part in the EU Succession Regulation, but EU countries apply it to every estate they handle, British and Irish ones included. By default, the law of the country where the person habitually lived governs the whole estate. A will can choose the law of the person's nationality instead, which is why many Britons and Irish people with homes elsewhere in the EU make a local will with that choice.

The documents travel differently. A UK death certificate, will or grant of probate (confirmation in Scotland) needs an apostille and an official translation before an EU notary, registry or bank will act on it. Irish certificates have it easier: EU rules exempt public documents such as death certificates from the apostille between Member States, and a multilingual form can replace the translation.

How these pieces fit together is different in every estate. A Virtual Consultation is where to work that out for one in particular. For assets in Spain, our guide to whether a lawyer in Spain is worth paying for helps decide whether one is needed at all.

Your own keys: what to leave, and where

Most of this can be spared with a little self-custody: keeping digital keys safe and making sure one trusted person can reach them.

• Make a list of the keys: the phone passcode, the SIM's PIN and PUK, the WhatsApp two-step PIN and the passwords to the main Apple, Google and email accounts.
• Keep them out of the will. In England and Wales, and in Ireland, anyone can order a copy of a will once probate has been granted. A password manager with emergency access, or a sealed letter kept with the will but separate from it, protects the keys and still gets them to the right person.
• Set up the legacy tools while it is easy: a Legacy Contact on Apple and Inactive Account Manager on Google. WhatsApp backups depend on those accounts.
• Write down the wishes in a letter for the executor: whether WhatsApp should be deleted, who looks after the family group and whether anyone may read the conversations. No UK or Irish law makes platforms follow it, but the executor will know what to do.

Without self-custody and without a digital legacy, the digital ghost lingers. With them, a family can say goodbye to this part of someone too.

Frequently asked questions

Does Tell Us Once close WhatsApp or social media accounts?

No. Tell Us Once informs government bodies such as HMRC, the DWP and the DVLA. Private companies, including phone providers, WhatsApp and social media platforms, have to be dealt with by the family or the executor directly. It is also unavailable in Northern Ireland.

Can an executor read a dead person's WhatsApp messages?

Only if the messages can be reached on the phone or in a backup the executor can open. WhatsApp itself does not hold them, so a grant of probate or a court order makes no difference there. UK and Irish data protection law give executors no specific right over the data of a person who has died.

Will a stranger end up with my relative's phone number?

It can happen once the contract ends and the month for moving the number has passed, because providers reissue numbers. If the WhatsApp account was never deleted, the new holder can even appear in the old groups. Deleting the account first, and transferring the line to a family member, prevents it.

Should passwords be written in a will?

It is safer to keep them separate. Once probate is granted, a will in England and Wales or in Ireland can be obtained by anyone who orders a copy. A password manager with emergency access, or a sealed letter kept apart from the will, does the same job privately.

How long does WhatsApp keep an inactive account?

Usually 120 days without an internet connection, counted from when the phone last connected. A phone left on and online keeps the account active. After a manual deletion, WhatsApp can take up to 90 days to erase it from its systems.