While the X of Elon Musk sees a drop in daily active users, some people decide to completely abandon the social network, whether for Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads or perhaps better, nothing at all.
Since the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX bought Twitter in 2022, many alternatives have arisen, seeking to trap people who are less than satisfied with the management of the platform by Musk. In some cases, this point of no return came when X transformed its iconic blue check into a paid functionality, making a symbol formerly associated with legitimacy into a badge devoid of meaning. For others, Musk’s political influence within the Trump administration was the final straw; Or maybe this moment came even earlier, when Musk restored the stories of known White supremacistsOr when X made public publications of users visible for the people they had blocked.
Maybe everything is sauce and you just try to reduce your screen time. Enough, and more power for you!
Anyway, if you try to do your ex, read the rest.
How to download your X archives
On x, you can Download an archive Various data associated with your account, including your messages, downloaded supports, direct messages and subscribers and the following lists. Whether you plan to delete your account or not, this type of data may be useful to have at hand.
The archive includes certain data that X may have collected on your account for targeting ads, such as all demographic interests or identifiers that the application may have deduced from you. X and other social platforms learn this information according to the types of messages you interact with; If you follow dozens of professional sports accounts, for example, then X will guess that you are a sports fan, and this will show you more advertisements related to sports.
Here’s how to download these archives from your office browser:
- Click on the three -point symbol at the bottom of the navigation bar on the left.
- Go towards Parameters and confidentiality.
- From there, you will be brought to a screen that says Your account. There you will see an option that says Download an archive of your data.
- Then, X will make you enter your password as a safety precaution. Once you have done this, you can request your data.
It can take a few days at the application to recover and prepare your data, so don’t be alarmed if you do not instantly receive a .zip file. But if you plan to deactivate or delete your account, wait until you receive the link to download your archives. X cannot send this data to an inactive account.
What should I do else before deleting my X account?
Deleting your X account means that no one on the site will be able to see your messages or your account. However, social networks have no control over search engines like Google, which automatically indexed publications. This means that your messages may always appear in the search results, even if the link to your message no longer exists.
If you want to be very careful, here are a few steps that you can take to minimize the chances that your messages live:
If your messages have never been public, you don’t have to worry about it. But even if you do a private public account for reasons outside of possible deletion, it is always possible that what you have published before protecting your account can experience in the research results; The search engines of cache messages and can have a discrepancy in updating dead links.
How to delete your x account
Alas, it is time to disconnect. If the deletion of your account is a little too permanent and intimidating, the option gives you a 30 -day grace period, during which you can change your mind and reactivate. Once you have disabled your account, your profile will no longer be visible on X.
Here is how to deactivate your X account:
- On your desktop browser, click on the three -point symbol at the bottom of the navigation bar on the left.
- Go towards Parameters and confidentiality.
- From there, you will be brought to a screen that says Your account. At the bottom of the list, you will see an option to Disable your account.
- Once you have clicked on this, you will be brought to another page, which ensures you Really Know what you do.
- Then click on the red button that says Disable.
Of course, X does not want you to delete your account, which is why it does not jump directly from the nuclear option. If you realize that the break with X is a horrible error, X will always bring you back, as long as this 30 -day window has not sold.
Once you have disabled, if 30 days go by without you connect to X, your account will be permanently deleted. Congratulations: You are free. Now come out or something like that.
What social platform should you use instead of X?
If you cannot shake this insatiable desire to publish, you can consult other applications that could scratch these itching, while transporting less luggage. Here are some alternatives to X that could suit your fantasy:
Bluesky
Bluesky is a microblogging site built at the top of an open source protocol. It is a lot of jargon, but on the surface, it means that the interior machinations of Bluesky are more transparent and that third -party developers can build on the application.
For people who do not trust large companies like Meta and Google to have the keys to their online social life, the open source nature of Bluesky could be attractive, because users have more control than they generally do when using the social product of a company. However, Bluesky is not utopian – it is still a technological company that has raised 23 million dollars on venture capital and must keep its investors happy. But as a company of public benefits, Bluesky has a right to do what is best for users (at least, it should), and not only its donors.
In January 2025, Bluesky has a subject 30 million registered users. Before Donald Trump was elected in November 2024, the social network had just 13 million Users, but many X users jumped the ship due to frustrations with Musk’s participation in the Trump campaign. Although Bluesky was formed as a project at Twitter under the former CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey, the company has no links with X, and Dorsey is no longer a member of its board of directors.
Mastodon
Like Bluesky, Mastodon is also an open source social network, and one with a longer assessment, operating since 2016. Although Bluesky architecture remains largely under the hood – you don’t need to know what a protocol Decentralized is to use the application – the mastodon configuration is a little more technological. For some people (like a large part of the cybersecurity community, which has settled on Mastodon), this is a point in favor of mastodon. But for the less informed, Mastodon can be confusing. The non -profit organization has taken measures to rationalize the registration process, defective users to the “mastodon.social” server instead of making people determine which server will join before even using the -shape.
In January 2025, Mastodon had around 10 million registered users, with more than 1 million active users, according to Open Source Data. The network has more than doubled since October 2022, when Elon Musk officially resumed Twitter.
Threads
Threads have a serious advantage in this space: it belongs to Meta, which means that you can transfer your following lists from Instagram transparently. Of all the options, threads facilitate monitoring of the people you already want to follow (although Bluesky and Mastodon have “start -up packs” to help, just like the wires).
But the largest threadwoman is also its fatal defect. If people are already tired of the Meta ecosystem – which also includes Facebook and WhatsApp – then they may not jump at the opportunity to give even more control over their online experiences.
The meta-PDG Mark Zuckerberg said in December 2024 that Threads had more than 100 million daily active users and 300 million monthly active users, which makes it much more popular than its competitors. Although the threads had a long step ahead of its integration with Instagram, the application continues to grow.
